Bulldogs’ Chase Stanley determined to overcome yet another heartbreaking injury

CANTERBURY’S Chase Stanley has broken just about everything imaginable and then some - everything but his spirit, writes PAUL KENT.

Daily Telegraph Sport Columnist Paul Kent

CHASE Stanley, who has been on all our minds, was in a better place on Wednesday.

That said he worked through the filing cabinet in his mind. He flicked through the first three or four shoulder reconstructions. No, not those.

He rolled through a few more files, through the knee reconstruction in 2011 that came after an elbow injury the season before that came before more shoulder surgery which some thought might have come from a corked knee he carried into the game.

Teammate Klemmer was there when it all got a bit much for Chase Stanley.

No, not those either.

“This is the first time I’ve had a hammy,” he said finally, “so it’s something new to me.”

If you can name it, chances are Stanley has torn it or snapped it or iced it.

Certainly the weirdest injury came two years ago at Canterbury when he tore the knee attachment to his calf.

“They had to look at the history books for that one,” he said. “They told me it only happens to cats and dogs. I was the first human.”

So that was a new one.

Bulldog Chase Stanley in action at ANZ Stadium. Picture: Gregg Porteous

Stanley is only 26 but is already in his 10th season of first grade.

If injury abandoned him he could have been playing game 214 last Monday against Canberra. Instead, it was his 100th first grade game. And, typically, he went off injured.

What followed was one of the more honest heartbreakers witnessed in the game.

Stanley got his diagnosis of a torn hamstring and realised he was starting over again and there in the dressing room he broke down.

Teammate David Klemmer stood and held him to his chest and somehow, as the vision played across our television screens, all our hearts were being pressed.

“It all built up,” Stanley said.

“That’s why I let my emotions out. Getting to a milestone was rewarding and then, to go off injured ... that’s why I had a bit of a sook.”

This is a man from a family used to setback.

Bulldog Chase Stanley is brought down during NRL match against the Canberra Raiders at Belmore Sports Ground. Picture: Phil Hillyard

Last year younger brother Kyle retired at just 24 after a fifth knee reconstruction created a mountain too high for one more effort. His body ultimately betraying him.

Chase, it seems, is made from similar fibres, but a rare fibre all the same. For most, the game goes on and all we wonder is whether the Dogs can recover and get over Melbourne on Monday.

For Stanley life becomes the isolation of the rehabilitation room.

Hours spent stretching rubber bands and having electricity pumped through him while being prodded and poked with not a teammate in sight.

Late Wednesday Stanley received the results from the scans and on Thursday the Canterbury physiotherapist will tell him how many more weeks he will miss and how he can best get himself back as quickly as possible.

The scans provide him the opportunity for action and so Stanley was in a much better place. He even managed a few jokes.

Rugby league’s most broken man is climbing back, slightly amused in the ironic kind of way that he has broken just about everything imaginable and then some, broken everything but his spirit, and continues to fight back.

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Originally published as Bulldogs’ Chase Stanley determined to overcome yet another heartbreaking injury