How the Sydney Roosters rehabbed Cooper Cronk ahead of the grand final
THE Sydney Roosters went to unprecedented lengths to ensure Cooper Cronk played in Sunday’s grand final, Michael Carayannis sets out the full cloak and dagger operation in every detail.
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THESE are the unprecedented lengths the Sydney Roosters went to in a bid to ensure Cooper Cronk played in Sunday’s grand final.
From clandestine training sessions in suburban parks to false injury updates and secret casts to downplay Cronk’s injury. This week had it all for a determined Roosters halfback and the team’s medical staff.
Club doctor Ameer Ibrahim likened Cronk’s 15-centimetre fracture of his scapula to someone who had been in a serious motorcycle crash. A few more centimetres and Cronk would have been no chance of playing.
“It was the most heroic thing I’ve seen by a footballer,” Ibrahim said. “I thought he was no chance of playing. Early on my thought was at some stage we will have to pull the plug.”
LAST SATURDAY NIGHT
It’s 10pm and scans on Cronk’s shoulder following their preliminary final win over South Sydney reveal the fracture.
Ibrahim, Trent Robinson and physiotherapists Steph Brennan and Adam Bentley hold an impromptu meeting inside the Roosters offices where the coach tells his staff to “try and get him ready”. Ibrahim immediately calls highly regarded orthopaedic surgeon John Trantalis — who helped save Billy Slater’s career. Trantalis rules out surgery as an option.
LAST SUNDAY
The quartet meet again about 8.30am where they formulate a plan of “conservative treatment”, according to Ibrahim. Cronk was unable to lift his arm 45 degrees.
“There was no chance of him playing,” Ibrahim said. “There was concern if he was weak and went out there he would do more damage. I couldn’t see how he could play. This whole time I’m thinking there was no way. Trent was keen to give him every available day up to kick off.”
Cronk meets the medical staff for a recovery session at Darlinghurst. He hops into a hyperbaric chamber and has laser therapy as they look to reduce the swelling.
“Early on my thought was at some stage we will have to pull the plug,” Ibrahim said. “Cooper was really positive.”
MONDAY/TUESDAY
Cronk has around-the-clock therapy, largely thanks to Brennan, who lives in the same suburb and also acted as his chauffeur.
“The medical staff formulated a thermoplastic splint in the shape of the scapula to act almost like a plastic cast on the bone,” Ibrahim told The Daily Telegraph at a Coogee cafe. “Something we could strap onto his back. He was wearing it non-stop.”
Cronk emerges without a sling when he posed for photographs at the Roosters’ media session on Monday. This is largely about optics.
“Correct,” Ibrahim said.
“Show no weakness. To fix that issue you need a sling and rest. There is no magic. But it seemed to give him some relief.
“We also experimented with different strapping techniques.
“He was determined. He said to us ‘whatever it takes I want to try it, I want to be out there’.”
WEDNESDAY
The cloak and dagger of the Roosters’ preparations continues. Cronk is secretly ushered into an imaging centre next door to the club’s training base before it had opened, in a bid to keep the prying media away.
“Wednesday got me excited,” Ibrahim said. Cronk was able to do half a push-up and could lift his arm up 90 degrees.
“That was the moment I thought ‘I wonder if we could get him over the line’.
“That’s when I used the imaging centre next door to see is it possible to put some local anaesthetic to give us half a chance. The results were OK without being spectacular.”
THURSDAY
Cronk appears confident in an afternoon press conference.
“He seemed to be happy with the local anaesthetic then it got me thinking we could look at this for game day,” Ibrahim said. “The phone calls started, looking for a radiology practice. I informed Robbo and Stef that this is an option and we could make it happen. Robbo was keen to pursue that.”
In one for the bizarre files, the Roosters receive an email from a wellwishing Queensland-based fan whose friend’s sister knew a Tibetan rotator cuff healer from Nashville in the United States. They were willing to fly to Sydney to assist. They politely decline.
FRIDAY
Cronk travels with Brennan to Castle Hill where Ibrahim has booked the last available session with radiologist Craig Harris in a bid to avoid public attention.
“He has a big $200,000 ultra sound machine,” Ibrahim said.
“If it worked we would’ve had to transport the machine with a big truck to ANZ Stadium. He rang the ultrasound company and they gave him some demo portable ones to use. He did both ultrasounds on Cooper and found the portable one was better. He injected along the fracture line to do the job.”
Then, remarkably, Cronk and Brennan decide to stop in the north shore suburb of Neutral Bay — not far from their homes — to undertake the strangest of all fitness tests. It is the only contact Cronk will do before Sunday’s game.
“Stef told me they passed the ball and then Stef tackled Cooper as hard as he could,” Ibrahim said. “He held him down and then Cooper was on the ground, Stef was jumping on him to see what happened. They were wrestling under a tree.”
The Roosters also consider arranging a police convoy for Cooper if they can’t find a portable machine.
SATURDAY
Cronk is in too much pain to train.
“We covered him with medication to decrease the soreness,” Ibrahim said. “I rang a few more doctors overseas — because we were still trying to keep it hush hush — to again ask what the worst-case scenario was if he played which was damaging his nerves.
“I wouldn’t say he risked his career. He risked possible a facture that would heel by itself needing surgery. Three months versus six weeks.”
PRE-GAME SUNDAY
The medical staff had worked out that the analgesia would last 80 minutes. But there are still grave concerns whether Cronk would react with the same positivity to the injection this time around.
Harris arrives at ANZ Stadium about 5pm before injecting Cronk at 6.50pm — about 40 minutes before kick-off.
“He had to have faith that the injection on Sunday was going to work as well as it did on Friday,” Ibrahim said.
“There was no certainty that it would work and I was not 100 per cent convinced. Our great fear was he would get pulled off after five minutes and the first tackle would stir it up again and we would have egg on our face.”
HALF-TIME
Cronk gets through the first half but said he was “really sore”.
“We cut his jersey off, we didn’t want to waste any time knowing it takes 15 minutes to work,” Ibrahim said. “The radiologist had drawn an area on his scapula where he was going to inject.” Cronk played the opening minutes of the second half in immense pain as he waited for the pain relief to kick-in.
“I asked him if he needed anything for the pain,” Ibrahim said. “He shook his head. He wanted to feel it.”
FULL-TIME
Cronk leaves the field two minutes early because of a rib injury, not his shoulder.
“There was lots of emotion going around afterwards,” Ibrahim said.
Cronk will have scans this week but the injury shoulder repair itself before Christmas.
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