Stephen Moore suffered a serious knee injury just moments into his first Test as captain © Getty Images

Enlarge

Stephen Moore says he still holds ambitions of captaining the Wallabies but is focused on first making a successful comeback with the Brumbies next season.

Moore captained Australia for all of five minutes earlier this year when disaster struck and he was forced off with a knee injury in the opening stages of the first Test against France in Brisbane. The veteran hooker has since undergone surgery and while the Brumbies' Super Rugby opener remains his primary concern, the desire to again captain his country remains.

"If I stood here and said I didn't have aspirations to captain the Wallabies, I'd be lying," Moore told the Canberra Times. "I got injured in my first Test after two minutes as captain. When that gets taken away from you so quick, of course you want to get back there. I want to prove to myself and my teammates that I can play at that level for Australia."

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika this week said he didn't want the national captaincy to be a "presidential run-off" and while he acknowledged Moore's "outstanding leadership qualities", it seems incumbent Australia skipper Michael Hooper remains in the box seat. "It's not going to be a presidential run-off or anything like that," Cheika said. "It's going to be about just deciding what's best for the team at that time. Right now, I'll be truthful, I'm very happy with the job that Michael Hooper's doing."

Moore is one of a number of Australian players to suffer a devastating knee injury in recent years, the Brumbies skipper joining ACT teammate David Pocock, Queensland Reds playmaker Quade Cooper and NSW Waratahs captain Dave Dennis as players to go under the knife. But his rehabilitation appears to be progressing well, with the intensity set to increase as the Brumbies continue their pre-season training over December and January.

"I'm still only running in a straight line, but I've been doing a lot of work in the sandpit," Moore told the Canberra Times. "Hopefully I'll start changing direction next week, then I'll start getting into the breakdown stuff and integrate with the team in the new year. That's the target, round one, I'm pretty optimistic about that. I'll be pushing pretty hard to get there for that game, but we'll know more in January."