AFTER years of denying he had a chronic injury, Indigenous All Stars icon Greg Inglis has admitted: “The knee’s been an issue over the last three of four years”.
Inglis made the comment at fulltime in his side’s 34-8 win over the World All Stars in the annual NRL representative exhibition match at McDonald Jones Stadium – a game in which rival Jarrod Croker suffered a knee injury of his own.
Canberra’s Croker was helped off amid concern his season was in jeopardy but initial diagnosis was that there was no damage to the all-important cruciate ligament. It’s believed to be a medial ligament problem, which could still endanger his round one availability.
During the Four Nations, Inglis repeated his regular denials that he was hampered by a heavily-strapped knee. “Everyone always walks around with a niggle but in terms of me throughout the year, in pretty much every interview I do it’s like ‘how’s your body?’. My body’s fine. I know that within myself.”
He was asked again in Newcastle on Channel Nine in light of his playing in the All Stars game without any strapping – and made the admission above.
The Indigenous side opened up a 16-0 lead early but it was narrowed to 16-8 for halftime before another flurry of points in the third and fourth quarters.
