South Sydney have copped a devastating double injury blow ahead of the NRL season.
Former NRL player Joel Caine has opened up how low Cameron Murray – and his wife – would be feeling after he suffered a devastating achilles injury at South Sydney training on Wednesday. Murray will be sidelined for up to eight months, with fears he could miss the entire NRL season.
He’d only recently recovered from a wrist injury and was pushing to be fit for selection in round one under new coach Wayne Bennett. According to reports he was pushing up during a defensive drill at training on Wednesday when his achilles snapped.
In a shocking twist of fate, teammate Latrell Mitchell suffered a hamstring injury no more than five minutes after Murray went down. Both injuries occurred during the same drill, leaving Murray and Mitchell sitting side-by-side in the physio rooms.
The Rabbitohs are hopeful Mitchell’s injury isn’t too series, but he’ll miss the Charity Shield this weekend and won’t be risked in the early part of the season. As for Murray, he’s facing months on the sidelines in a heartbreaking blow for the NSW and Australia second-rower.
Devastation for Cameron Murray and wife Miranda
Speaking on SEN radio on Wednesday afternoon, Caine said: “It’s devastating for him and his partner (Miranda). The partners carry a lot (of the burden) you know. You just know Murray has given everything this off-season. It is so cruel.”
As Caine was alluding to, the players’ partners pour so much of their lives into supporting them, and are forced to pick up the load at home whenever they’re absent. Murray and wife Miranda recently welcomed a baby girl, and the rep forward probably didn’t get to spend as much time at home as he would have liked because he was trying so hard to prove his fitness for round one.
Murray spoke only last week about trying to put the Rabbitohs’ long run of injuries out of his mind. The Rabbitohs have been decimated by injuries over the last few years, and Cody Walker and Campbell Graham are no guarantee to be available for the start of the season.
“I try not to think too much about it, because if you think too much about it you just drive yourself crazy,” Murray told AAP. “We have had enough time over-thinking things, victimising ourselves.
“The only way to get over something like that is just control what you can. If you are unlucky enough to pick up an injury, just deal with what you need to do with your rehab to get back out there. You can say ‘Why is this happening to us?’ or you can say ‘This is happening to us, how do we come back from it?'”
Fears Damien Cook decision could haunt South Sydney
With Murray, Mitchell, Walker and Graham out, Wayne Bennett’s side are missing a dearth of experience and talent. Speaking on Wide World of Sports radio on Wednesday, Brad Fittler questioned whether the decision to let Damien Cook switch to the Dragons might come back to bite the Bunnies.
“(Murray) just generates so much of their speed and they’ve also lost their experienced hooker as well, so I think they’d look back and love Cookie back at the moment with a bit more speed around that ruck,” Fittler said. “That puts so much pressure (on them) … that’s not good for Souths, they’ve lost a couple of real experienced players. I saw them in the trial match, they didn’t go to bad in the trial match but it’ll be interesting how they go this week.”
The double injury blow has had immediate consequences for the Rabbitohs. They plummeted from $17 to win the comp to $34 on Wednesday afternoon, with many predicting they won’t make the top eight without Murray.
