State of Origin 2018: Blues debutant Matt Prior on when he climbed out of his hospital bed for Cronulla
MATT Prior was curled up in a hospital bed on a drip just hours before Cronulla’s clash with the Titans on the Gold Coast earlier this year. Did it stop him? What do you think?
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MATT Prior was curled up in a hospital bed on a drip just hours before Cronulla’s clash with the Titans on the Gold Coast in April.
His left elbow had swollen remarkably because of a staph infection, forcing him into hospital and almost certainly ending his hopes of playing for the Sharks that night.
But with Cronulla badly down on players with the likes of Paul Gallen, Wade Graham and Luke Lewis sideline, Prior answered the call.
“I had a sore elbow early in the week,” Prior said. “I didn’t think too much of it. It just blew up on me and I felt a bit sick and it was really painful.
“I was lying on the couch and couldn’t move. I rang the club and said I had an infection and they got me into hospital. I stayed overnight but ended up getting to the Gold Coast the next day to play the game.
“It blew up. It was pretty swollen. It was painful. I felt sick and run down. But I felt OK by the time the game came around. I was pretty hydrated having been on the drip.
“The doctors were saying it wasn’t going to get any worse so they said I could play. At worse I would have had to come back into hospital when I get back home for another 24 hour stint or whatever it took to get the energy back.”
Prior led the Sharks to a 10-9 victory, making 15 tackles and running for 99 metres in his 55 minutes.
“My energy levels weren’t too bad,” Prior said. “I thought I would be more tired. I’d rested up for a few days.
“I didn’t feel like I did as much as I usually would. I felt I conserved my energy a little bit and just wanted to get through the game. I didn’t put in my normal performance.
“I got some strong antibiotics for two weeks and I stuck on them and it’s been all good since.”
Prior sang the team song before rushing back to Sydney to be on hand for the birth of his first child.
That performance tells everything you need to know about the latest Blues player. Gallen, who has built his own reputation on being one of the fiercest competitors in the game, thought there was little chance Prior could take to the field.
“I’d had a couple of issues with staph,” Gallen said. “He was texting me asking me about it and what I had and what medication they gave me and how I felt. When he texted me the Thursday before the game that he was in hospital, on a drip, I thought he was no chance of playing even if he threw it out there that he wanted to play.”
Prior will need to call on every inch of his mental toughness ahead of his Origin debut. He has plenty of big game experience having one premierships with St George Illawarra and Cronulla respectively, with Gallen declaring Prior “set the tone” for the Sharks 2016 premiership win.
“I will never forget before the grand final we spoke about being disciplined,” Gallen said. “Michael Ennis takes Jordan McLean’s head off in the second tackle of the game, and then Jesse Bromwich takes the next hit up and Matt Prior folded him in half and drove him back five metres.
“I’ve heard some stories that he is unheralded at the Sharks. That’s not true. He is brutal in defence. His arms like big armed vice-grips. He will handle it. You may see him making a few less tackles after Origin for Cronulla now because his NSW teammates will see how hard he hits.”
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