Sharks star Wade Graham eyes return from season of woe
Wade Graham suffered two hamstring injuries, a broken cheekbone, a concussion and a medial knee injury before his 2018 season of woe ended with a ruptured ACL.
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Eighteen matches, seven injuries and a baby — 2018 has been a rollercoaster Wade Graham will never forget.
Fresh from being part of Australia’s World Cup winning team in 2017, Graham was last year supposed to entrench himself as a representative star.
He had been given the mantle of co-captaining the Sharks, but that moment was the only football highlight in an otherwise disastrous year.
Graham managed 18 matches — his fewest since 2010 — but many of them ended on the sidelines.
The 28-year-old suffered two hamstring injuries, a broken cheekbone, a concussion and a medial knee injury before his season of woe ended with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in Cronulla’s qualifying final loss to the Roosters.
The injury is likely to sideline Graham for the first three months of this year too, with Cronulla’s first game following their round 12 bye a possible return date.
Graham and fiancee Karianne Lafrance also welcomed their first child, William, to the world, in August.
Graham spent Christmas in Canada with Lafrance’s family and relished the time, but said he would do whatever it takes to ensure he does not have a repeat of his 2018 troubles.
“There were a lot of injuries and a lot of different injuries,” Graham said.
“It was one of those years. I have an opportunity now to spend seven or eight months in the gym.
“Spending this time to have a break for a bit and get myself in the best shape possible so when I do come back I’ll hit the ground running.
“I’m trying to look at the bright side — having a seven-month break in the gym, I’m not going to be getting banged up every week. I’ll have the opportunity to train really hard without the bumps and bruises.
“If anything, it could launch the back-end of my career. I’m 28 now. I’m on the other side (of my career). If I treat this break right and work hard enough on the field and in the gym it could really launch me into the back-end of my career. That’s how I’m looking at it.
“You can’t spend too much time down and thinking about it.
“Prior to this year I’d had a great run with injuries.”
Graham has long been anointed as Paul Gallen’s successor and there were plans to make him the sole skipper this year. But his extended stint on the sidelines means he will have to wait to fully take the reins.
“It’ll be tough now missing half the season,” Graham said.
“It’s a bit more of that transitional period.
“It’s set in stone now that this will be his last season. For a long time there has been ‘is Gal (Gallen) going again, isn’t he going again’?
“With this season being his last, the club will look to transition a bit more.
“Unfortunately our plans that we put in motion have been disrupted because of my knee injury. I won’t be there for the first half of the season but it gives an opportunity for some of the other guys to step into that leadership role and grow.”
GRAHAM’S 2018 INJURIES WOES
April 13: left hamstring
May 5: left hamstring
June 1: concussion
June 16: broken cheekbone
July 20: groin
August 12: right knee medial ligament sprain
September 8: right knee ACL
Originally published as Sharks star Wade Graham eyes return from season of woe
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