Roosters coach Trent Robinson pays tribute to Blake Ferguson, who played 22 minutes of the NRL grand final with a broken leg

BLAKE Ferguson played the last 20 minutes of the NRL grand final with a broken leg and didn’t tell anyone until half an hour after the siren had sounded. Beat that, Cooper Cronk.

Fergo reported his broken leg as 'a bit tingly'.

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FOR 22 minutes, Blake Ferguson suffered in silence.

Soaked up the pain of what would later be revealed as a broken left fibula, caught under the weight of a tackle from Melbourne winger Josh Addo-Carr in last Sunday’s NRL grand final.

He limped away from the play-the-ball but refused to tell anyone — medical team, trainers or coaching staff.

Although the Sydney Roosters winger immediately thought he had suffered a serious injury, he wasn’t coming from the field — not even for a broken leg.

It hurts just looking at it, never mind playing on it. (Brett Costello)

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With the Roosters’ line-up already disjointed due to Cooper Cronk’s reduced role because of his shoulder injury, Ferguson feared being replaced and letting down his teammates.

It wasn’t until 30 minutes after the full-time siren sounded on the Roosters’ 21-6 win over the Storm that Ferguson finally approached club physio Steph Brennan in the ANZ Stadium dressingroom for treatment, and to confess how seriously his injury may be.

“That was a snapshot of his year, in that action,” Roosters coach Trent Robinson said.

“Fergo was going until the siren. He has become a selfless beast.”

According to Robinson, that selflessness has been a hallmark of Ferguson’s season, in which he became the third player after Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Jason Taumalolo to run more than 5000 metres in a season.

Does rugby league love anything more than playing with an injury? (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)

“It wasn’t until 20, 30 minutes after the game when he said to the physio his leg was getting a bit numb and ‘tingly’. It was then we thought it could be worse than what we thought,” Robinson said.

“They checked it out and found a little break there.

“You could see he was hurting but he just didn’t want to stray from his task, especially on that stage. He was going until the siren.

“He hasn’t strayed from his task all year. He has had a really powerful mindset about his role in our team. That probably showed up to the extreme level in fracturing a leg and how he just kept going.

“That’s what you get with Fergo, his mind has been really clear about his role in our team. It was also about supporting Joey (right centre Joseph Manu) in defence and getting us out of the back field.

“I haven’t gone back and looked at when (the broken leg) happened but it was about 20 to 25 minutes to go, I saw he started hobbling.

“Fergo, even he would say, was a brash young kid who became a selfless beast, in the way he carried the ball and defended. It was a great to top off his career with us.”

Ferguson ended his Roosters career in style. (TNV)

The Roosters will have a break before returning to training late next month.

Robinson said he hadn’t even begun to think about his club’s 2019 premiership defence.

“You have to take a breath,” Robinson said. “I’m not even giving that air at the moment.”

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Originally published as Roosters coach Trent Robinson pays tribute to Blake Ferguson, who played 22 minutes of the NRL grand final with a broken leg