NRL 2023: NRL legend Boyd Cordner wounded on SAS TV show

Sydney Roosters great Boyd Cordner has returned home to Australia for surgery on an injury he suffered while filming a brutal reality TV show.

Sydney Roosters great Boyd Cordner. Picture: Toby Zerna

Retired Sydney Roosters star Boyd Cordner has landed himself in the NRL casualty ward yet again.

The former Kangaroos and NSW Blues skipper tore his pectoral muscle on SAS Australia, the brutal reality TV show recently filmed in Jordan.

Channel 7 insiders have revealed Cordner was injured early in the series that was filmed offshore for the first time.

He was treated by the show’s chief medical officer Dr Dan Pronk, who has served on more than 100 combat missions as an army special operations doctor.

Boyd Cordner with his arm in a sling in the Roosters’ sheds.

Cordner has returned home to Australia for surgery, comforted in business class with ice packs and painkillers.

He was spotted in the Roosters’ dressing sheds at Allianz Stadium on Thursday night after the victory over Parramatta.

The injury is one of the most painful that a rugby league player can suffer and normally requires up to 16 weeks on the sidelines for a complete recovery.

Cordner was granted a medical retirement from the NRL in June 2021 after a series of head knocks and concern around his long-term health.

He was competing in the Channel 7 series won by former Souths hardman Sam Burgess in 2021, ironically another NRL star who had previously been forced into a medical retirement.

Boyd Cordner’s SAS Australia profile shot.

Ex-boxer Anthony Mundine, former AFL player Jason Akermanis and former Olympic swimming gold medallist Stephanie Rice were among this year’s cast.

The show will go to air in October on Channel 7.

Cordner is still on the Sydney Roosters’ staff to assist coach Trent Robinson.

He could not be contacted for comment because contestants have to sign confidentiality clauses until the series has gone to air.

A Seven spokesperson declined to comment.