Luke Keary charged but free to play NRL grand final
Luke Keary is free to play the NRL grand final despite being hit with a grade one careless high tackle charge, but fears over his ankle continue to grow.
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Luke Keary is free to play the NRL grand final despite being hit with a grade one careless high tackle charge for a hit on Storm forward Felise Kaufusi.
Keary will be fined $1,150 if he takes the early guilty plea or $1,500 if he fights the charge and loses.
Keary escaped charge for pulling the hair of Kaufusi during the same incident.
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Of more concern to the Roosters is an ankle injury that almost saw Keary ruled out of Saturday night’s win over the Storm, which he aggravated during the game.
He was spotted in an ankle brace after the match.
Keary was unable to train until Friday. Post game last night his ankle heavily iced high up + then in aircast brace, injury appeared easily aggravated in 2nd half after simple landing during a kick. Lends support to some combination of high +/- lateral ankle ligament injury pic.twitter.com/WFGvGzOQdS
— NRL PHYSIO (@nrlphysio) September 29, 2019
“You could see he was limping,” coach Trent Robinson said after the match. “He got kick pressured and tried to stand ... he should’ve gone to ground. He tried to resist against that.
“He got the sore ankle out of that. He was pretty good after that. He had to work hard to get into that game.
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“He was never in a moon boot but it took a lot of time to recover from two weeks ago.
“Each day we were thinking he would get better. He only trained yesterday (Friday) for the first time since the game.
“He said he was right. When Luke gets his head on he makes a decision.”
Keary said: “In those last five minutes I came down a bit funny on it. I knew it was going to be sore at the end but to be honest I didn’t feel it too much at all through the game.
“I’m not worried.”
Mitchell Aubusson is in doubt for the grand final after suffering a serious concussion against the Storm.
The Roosters face Canberra in the decider at ANZ Stadium next Sunday.
Keary won the Clive Churchill Medal for man-of-the-match in last year’s grand final against Melbourne.
The Roosters are aiming to become the first side to win back-to-back titles since the Broncos in 1992 and 1993.