Roosters’ Jared Waerea-Hargreaves looks after bright side as NRL finals hopes shattered by knee injury

AFTER having his finals dream blown apart by a shocking knee injury, Roosters enforcer Jared Waerea-Hargreaves was refusing to feel sorry for himself.

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JARED Waerea-Hargreaves showed on Sunday that he is as tough off the field as he is on it.

After having his finals dream blown apart by a shocking knee injury on Saturday night, the Roosters enforcer was back home and refusing to feel sorry for himself.

And as the proud new dad looked into the eyes of his baby girl Zahli Rae, Waerea-Hargreaves declared: “I will be sweet. Obviously it is a massive blow but I’m all good.

“I am staying as positive as I can. That is footy and that is reality.

“I have my little one here keeping me company.

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“As we speak I am looking at my little one and I am just very thankful for her to be here.

“Like I said, she is keeping me company going through these tough times.”

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JWH has something important to keep him in a positive frame of mind.

In a double blow for the NRL premiership favourites, Waerea-Hargreaves will be gone for the season while it’s feared Mitchell Pearce will be out for between four and six weeks with a hamstring tear.

Waerea-Hargreaves revealed he found out about Pearce’s injury as he emerged from having his own MRI scan on Saturday night.

“I was in the doctor’s room and I came out and then went up to the scanning clinic,” he said.

“As I looked over my shoulder, I looked through the glass and I saw another Roosters jersey sitting in the room.

“And I was like, ‘Holy hell, what is going on here?’

“And I walked out of the room after getting my scan and skipper Pearcey was sitting there.

“I said; ‘What are you doing here? I hope you are not coming to see how I am’. And he tossed up that he had done something to his hammy.”

Waerea-Hargreaves walks up the stadium steps of the stadium on crutches.

Waerea-Hargreaves said the likelihood is ACL damage, which will keep him sidelined for at least six months.

“I’m pretty sure it is (the ACL),” he said. “I think that’s minimum six months.”

It not only robs him of the chance to play in the finals for the Roosters, but also the opportunity to win back his Kiwi Test jumper at the end of the season.

Waerea-Hargreaves went into the match in the best form of his career after stamping himself once again as the game’s most feared prop.

But he said he knew as soon as he went down in the 12th minute of Saturday night’s gutsy 12-10 win over the Broncos that the damage was serious.

“I heard a couple of cracks in the knee,” he recalled.

“Obviously, the adrenaline was going and I sort of said I would be right.”

But as he attempted to stand up he realised it was a major injury.

“I knew straight away there was something serious going on.”

Roosters and Broncos players all stop as Waerea-Hargreaves goes down.

Plenty of people think the Roosters will be up against it to go on from here and win the comp without Waerea-Hargreaves and Pearce until well into the finals.

But Waerea-Hargreaves said if Saturday night’s win proves one thing, it’s that the Roosters still have the team to make an impact in the finals.

It was the Roosters’ 10th straight victory, and given the circumstances of losing Waerea-Hargreaves and Pearce so early in the match, many have rated it among the most courageous in the club’s history.

“Obviously it was bad news for the both of us but (the team) just showed true character and strength to pull through,” he said.

“They fought hard and I am proud of the boys for doing what they did.”

Originally published as Roosters’ Jared Waerea-Hargreaves looks after bright side as NRL finals hopes shattered by knee injury