NRL: Kieran Foran hopes a club can see his value after another injury setback

Kieran Foran is facing three months on the sidelines, leaving him to rely on the faith of clubs as he attempts to extend his career

Kieran Foran comes off with a torn pec during the clash with Gold Coast on Saturday

Kieran Foran hopes that clubs can still see that he is capable of playing great footy. He hopes they can see that he continues to turn up each week and give everything he has got. He hopes they can see that he can be valuable to a club that aspires to win a premiership.

He hopes that hope is enough because after his latest wretched injury blow, hope is just about all he has got. Foran is off contract at the end of the season and barring an absolute miracle, he won’t get another chance to show clubs what he can do before the end of the year.

Scans on Monday are expected to confirm a torn pectoral muscle, meaning surgery and up to three months on the sidelines. Cruel barely does it justice. Foran had strung together double-figure games for the first time in six years as part of a Canterbury side that seems certain to finish last.

He had been one of their best and most consistent players over that time. The Bulldogs tabled a one-year deal but then withdrew it when Foran and his management hesitated. They opted to go in another direction and Foran was on the lookout for a new club.

That search suddenly got infinitely harder.

“I would hope that clubs would still see that I still have great footy in me and that they can see that with everything I have been through, that I continue to turn up and give it my absolute all and can still be really valuable to a club in terms of striving to win a premiership,” Foran said.
“My body has let me down the last few years and I can understand clubs’ hesitation around wanting to sign me, but you’re not talking a million dollars a year any more … and even if I play half the games, I like to think that is still reasonable value.

“That’s what my belief is, that I can still be an asset moving forward. I would like to think I have played a reasonably high level this year to still be of some appeal to a club.

“I have to hope now really — I have to hope somebody can see that in me. It is frustrating. I was moving well again and all of that.

“That’s me — I throw everything into what I do.”

Foran tore the pec attempting to make a tackle during his side’s loss to the Gold Coast Titans on Saturday. At the age of 30, he is facing another long and painstaking recovery. He will begin it with his career shrouded in uncertainty.

He knows he will have to take a significant cut from his current $1.2 million a year salary, but money is the last thing on his mind at the moment. He just wants a chance.

“I threw my arm out to try to stop him (fullback AJ Brimson) and I felt it go,” Foran said.
“I couldn’t believe it. A million things went thought my head straight away. First of all I thought that is my season gone. Straight away, I am off contract, this can’t be good.

“Then just disappointment. It is completely out of my control. It’s not going to worry me too much with what a club comes at me with (in terms of money).

“I just know I still have that desire and will to win. I want to challenge myself against the best. However long I still have that mentality, I would like to think I am still playing at that level.

“I have to hope that’s someone has seen enough to know what I am and know what I still have to offer. Each and every week I have tried to go out there and give it my all. I guess that’s all I can do.”