Benji Marshall admitting his career may be over was hard to watch

BENJI Marshall has admitted his NRL career may be over at the end of 2016, and there is something very off about it.

Have we seen the last of Benji?

OPINION

SPORTSMEN and women retire all the time.

If they’re lucky, they get to do it on their terms. If they’re unlucky, they’re forced into it by injury, poor form, age or a lack of options.

Benji Marshall looks like he’s going to be one of the unlucky ones.

The 31-year-old admitted on Tuesday night’s edition of NRL 360 this may be his last season as a professional footy player, even though he doesn’t want it to be, after the Dragons told him he wasn’t required beyond this year.

You can check out exactly what he said in the two-minute video at the top of this article — it’s worth it — but here’s a brief summary.

He spoke about the “scary” prospect of no longer having the routine of being a rugby league player, the challenges he’s had to face on the field in recent times and the blunt truth there’s every chance his future won’t pan out the way he wants.

The final 10 seconds were the worst.

“I don’t have a plan. I’d love to stay in the NRL. There’s not a lot happening at the moment to be honest and there’s a fair chance that I might have to retire,” he said with a shrug of the shoulders.

It was hard and just so sad to watch.

Benji’s time with the Dragons is coming to an end.

I realise for all the fairytales in sport — think Leicester winning the EPL, Steve Waugh’s last-ball century, the Socceroos finally making it back to the World Cup — there are plenty of hard luck stories.

In one respect, Benji has been more fortunate than most. The fact he’s still playing more than a decade after his debut is remarkable given the amount of injuries he’s had to endure.

There have been serious knee injuries and more dislocated shoulders than the NRL’s seen Mad Mondays gone wrong. How he’s played more than 250 NRL games is anyone’s guess.

But for all the talk athletes throw out about “the game not owing me anything”, this time, the game certainly owes Benji Marshall something.

Every league supporter knows how good he was — and still can be. When he arrived on the scene as a teenager, tackling him was simply a lottery when he pulled off the freakish step that will define him long after he’s left the sport.

His no-look passes, cheeky chip kicks off the outside of the boot and ability to catch the opposition napping with a quick tap from a penalty will live on his resume forever.

Then there was THAT pass. That backhanded flick to Pat Richards that finally brought Magpies and Tigers supporters the joy in 2005 they’d been craving for decades. The act of sheer brilliance that will feature on every NRL highlights DVD ever produced from now until the end of time.

No Tigers fan will ever forget this moment.

When you think of Benji, it’s the good memories that always flash up first.

His left the Tigers at the end of the 2013 after 10 years with the club and after a brief and unsuccessful stint with the Blues in the Super Rugby competition, he made his way back to the NRL with the Dragons.

As he mentioned on Tuesday night, he’s only played 12 games this year due to injury. In 2015 he came equal second in the Dally M Awards — effectively making him the second best player in the game. Getting punted from the NRL was more ludicrous than the prospect of Donald Trump becoming president.

Yet somehow, less than a year on, that’s the sad reality he’s facing.

Benji was playing in the NRL when he should have been in maths class.

As a teenager at Keebra Park State High School on the Gold Coast, Benji already had to live with the burden of being the man (well, boy) who would save the Tigers. He’s had to play much of the back end of his career as a halfback, something he has openly said he dislikes.

But he’s dealt with those challenges and carved out a career 99 per cent of players would be jealous of.

He doesn’t deserve to go out like this — reluctant to leave, but without a club that wants him.

That’s the feeling of hopelessness he projected at the end of that two minute clip. It’s not the last impression of Benji Marshall the rugby league world should see. It’s just not fair.

So while nothing is set in stone just yet, and he may well find another club, it will be more than just him who is sad to see the end of his NRL career if that’s how things eventuate. He deserves better.

Originally published as Benji Marshall admitting his career may be over was hard to watch