Broncos star Kotoni Staggs has opened up on the key shoulder damage he carried all through the second half of final season.
Staggs’ State of Origin debut was lower brief when he copped a knock to his shoulder in recreation one. New South Wales docs thought it was a nasty cork — and so did the Broncos’ medical group when he returned to membership duties.
He sat out of the Broncos’ subsequent recreation however performed each match after that.
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Fans would have assumed the 24-year-old had recovered from the cork, however the actuality is that he soldiered on by means of large ache as a result of he didn’t wish to miss a recreation and let his teammates down — particularly when finals appeared like an actual likelihood.
But Staggs has since advised foxsports.com.au that he knew one thing was significantly flawed along with his left shoulder.
And it wasn’t till an end-of-season scan that each Staggs and the Broncos’ workers realised he had torn his labrum and required surgical procedure, which dominated him out of the World Cup.
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“Every time somebody would go on my inside shoulder my arm just went dead and I couldn’t feel it,” Staggs stated on Thursday.
“The feeling would come back later in the game and it just did that for the remainder of the season so I knew something was wrong with it.
“I think that was one of the other things going through last season, my shoulder was pretty sore every game so I just had to strap it up because I didn’t want to let the boys down or get surgery during the season because we almost made finals.
“I took the risk and played the whole season with it and then got it operated on.”
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The good news is that Staggs’ restoration goes nicely. He moved out of the no-contact coaching bib and is anticipated to be proper for the trials.
It’s a aid for the powerhouse centre, who admitted he was a great distance of himself within the opening rounds of final season.
“To be honest my first games at the start of the season weren’t where I wanted to be, especially coming from an ACL injury as well,” Staggs stated.
“To miss just one game all year though, that was a bonus for me. But I think I was really trying to support my injury more than playing good footy — I had that in the back of my head, I didn’t want to do it again.”
Staggs is planning for a way more damaging season, declaring: “There’s a lot more footy I can show.” And he’s been engaged on one specific aspect of his recreation.
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“I just think the big thing is defence wins games and I want to be good in my defence, my decisions and how I read my plays,” he stated.
“I just want to work with my right edge and be comfortable with the person on the in and outside of me.”
The Broncos completed 2022 on a bitter observe. After occurring a seven-game successful streak and hitting the highest 4 they misplaced 5 of their final six video games and completed ninth.
Missing the finals has lit a hearth in Staggs, who’s hoping for redemption this yr.
“It does (make you hungrier),” he stated.
“We had our hands on the top four and thought we were going to play finals but it just went down hill so quick.
“This year we want to prove a point and make our mark, be in the top four and hopefully go all the way.”
Source web site: www.foxsports.com.au
