Nathan Cleary’s legend grows as full extent of NRL grand final knee injury revealed
Nathan Cleary has opened up on the injury he carried through an hour of the NRL grand final – and the revelations take his heroics to a whole new level.
NRL
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The legend of Nathan Cleary’s grand final heroics continues to grow after revelations the Penrith star played the final hour of their triumphant decider on one leg.
Cleary was on Wednesday ruled out of the Kangaroos’ upcoming Pacific Championship series after copping a hip-drop tackle from Brisbane prop Payne Haas early in the contest.
Scans on Thursday are expected to confirm a PCL injury.
“It’s pretty disappointing. I would have loved to play (for Australia) again,” Cleary said.
“But the last couple of days have been pretty sore. I probably wouldn’t have been able to play the first couple of games anyway.”
The incident forced Cleary to temporarily hand goalkicking duties to Stephen Crichton, who converted Mitch Kenny’s opening try while the Panthers co-captain was being treated on-field.
Cleary went on to play out the rest of the match, including an unforgettable final 20 minutes where he inspired a historic 16-point comeback that will go down in grand final folklore.
“I remember feeling at the time it felt a bit weird. I didn’t take the conversion not long after that. We were just sort of getting it checked out,” Cleary said.
“And then I could feel it through the game, but I wasn’t too sore. Adrenaline (was) pumping. But then the next day afterwards, it was a struggle to walk around. It wasn’t anything crazy.
“I got it checked at halftime, but the physio was pretty confident that it was nothing too serious. He gave me a lot of positivity. I just had to go on.”
Cleary’s effort comes on the back of halves partner Jarome Luai playing with a dislocated shoulder, which he succumbed to midway through the second half.
“The team just show everything about what our culture is and our values,” Ivan said.
“The courage they play with, you just have no idea what these boys go through and the injuries they play through. It’s an absolute badge of honour, you just don’t go down.
“There’s been so many obvious ones like Romey, but just little ones you probably never see. “Nathan on the weekend, a very significant injury that’s going to keep him out of the Australian series.
“From early in the game he played on pretty much one leg and did what he did.
“Moses Leota has pretty much got one arm and he plays every week.”
The Panthers halfback also revealed that Broncos counterpart Adam Reynolds had reached out to Cleary after the match to apologise for leaving Penrith out of his post-game speech.
“I spoke to Adam Reynolds, who sent me a message after the game, and I just congratulated him on the year he had,” he Cleary said.
“I have a lot of admiration for Reyno, so that was cool.
“I don’t know him I’m overly well, but I’ve met him a couple times and he’s a legend of a bloke and a great footy player too.
“He actually apologised for not mentioning us in his post-match speech. I said, ‘It’s 100 per cent fine’. Then he just said congratulations.”
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