‘A fair whack of the ego’: Christian Welch reaches major milestone after battling through injuries, loss of captaincy and a move to the bench

He’s overcome three major injuries, he lost the captaincy and he’s been moved to the bench. But Christian Welch has never stopped being selfless as he reaches a major milestone.

While all eyes are on Cameron Munster ahead of his milestone game against the Titans, great mate Christian Welch will tick off an equally important achievement on the Gold Coast as he brings up NRL game 150 after battling through three devastating injuries that took an incredible mental and physical toll on the Storm star.

Welch, 29, is 56 days older than his former roommate who plays game 200 this weekend, but his journey has been a little bit different with the prop forward suffering two serious knee injuries and an achilles tear that have robbed him of some special memories, including the 2017 premiership win.

Christian Welch has fought back from three serious injuries at the Storm. Picture: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

“It’s a proud moment for myself but also my family who’ve kind of ridden that wave with me. I’ve had a lot of highs but also had a few downs with some serious injuries, so I’m grateful for the support I’ve had,” Welch said ahead of his special moment.

Welch doesn’t wow the crowd like Munster does, but the Storm five-eighth knows just how hard his close friend has worked to get to this point when many other players would have given up.

“If he didn’t get injured then he’d probably be at the same stage with his 200th, but I think it’s a massive milestone for him and his family,” Munster said on the Clubhouse podcast.

“He’s been out with three season-ending injuries. A lot of blokes could have pulled the pin after two ACLs and an achilles, but he’s come back and has found his feet and is playing some great footy.”

Welch and Cameron Munster have been close ever since they moved to Melbourne. Picture: Michael Klein.

As heartbreaking as the injuries have been, Welch has always found a way to help others, be it through his charity work with Camp Quality, his leadership with the RLPA or looking out for teammates when they’ve been injured.

Ryan Papenhuyzen knows all about that through his own injury setbacks, while Welch also went out of his way to meet up with young halfback Jonah Pezet to give him advice before he went in for ACL surgery this week.

“He lost his captaincy at the start of the year. That would have been unbelievably tough, but you can see he’s still a natural leader,” Papenhuyzen said.

“We might have had an issue at training the other day, but he’d send a message in the group to the leaders being like ‘keep an eye out for this’.

“He could easily not do that, but it shows how much he cares and how much he wants the right thing for people.”

That selfless attitude has been on show this year with Welch losing the captaincy to Harry Grant and also dropping back to the bench where he’s provided a spark with his ability to offload.

Welch is no longer the captain but he remains a valued leader at the Storm. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

“It’s been a bit of a challenging six months or so since the end of last year, moving back to the bench and then losing the captaincy,” he said.

“It’s probably a fair whack of the ego with what I considered my role, but I kind of took some reflection on that and I just really love this place and this club and I just want to see us be successful and I’m just really excited about contributing in whatever way.”

Welch is very different to Munster on and off the field, but he says it’s a privilege to celebrate the big day alongside a man who has matured greatly after a few indiscretions earlier in his career.

“I’m so proud of the guy he is,” he said.

“He’s obviously a bit of a maverick, but he’s really matured as a person, and he’s had his challenges, but it’s amazing to see how good of a father he is and a good husband to Bianca.

“He’s really mellowed, and if anything, he’s gone a bit boring, but it’s really exciting to see him turn into the guy he is and the care he has for his family, so to share that night with him is going to be a really big honour.”