Gosiewski beats six injuries, infection to savour victory song
- Author
- Timestamp
Jack Gosiewski's second NRL victory song in two years has been six long-term injuries, several surgeries, a 'Mal Meninga armguard' and one particularly pesky golden staph infection in the making.
Gosiewski finally returned to the paddock for Manly in their heart-stopping golden point win over Cronulla on Sunday, his first game since ironing out Johnathan Thurston with an infamous late shot in June and then breaking his arm an hour later.
That was his first game back from a busted hand suffered in round eight, and an eventful return to say the least after a month out.
For a 24-year-old far too accustomed to doctors and surgeons but rated highly enough to be invited to Brad Fittler's Emerging Blues camp at the start of the year, that Manly team song in the sheds last week was a while coming and then some.
"That's the first time I've sung the team song in 21 rounds," Gosiewski told NRL.com having played in five Sea Eagles losses across the start of 2018.
"Jeez, it felt good. That was the first one after I broke my hand, came back after four weeks and straight away that first game back I broke my arm, same arm.
"It was meant to put me out for seven weeks but three weeks into it, it got infected so I needed another surgery.
"It ended up being two surgeries and another five or six days in hospital on a drip.
"I had to get a staph. I was in there for six days, I'd be on a drip every six hours but they caught it quite early which was good because it can be quite serious.
"Now I'm on antibiotics for the next three months and I've got the big Mal Meninga arm pad on now. All part and parcel of it."
Unfortunately for the Murwillumbah product, part and parcel of his time at the top level has been mostly trying to jag some game time.
He arrived at Manly from South Sydney late last year and trained the house down, earning a reputation as someone you'd rather play with than against after bashing up his teammates all summer.
Gosiewski has been making up for lost time for a while now. His last victory song, at the Rabbitohs in August last year, was followed by a hyper-extended knee.
That day he was back in first grade, finally returning from surgery on a patella tendon that had kept him out for four months.
The previous year at Redfern, nerve damage in his neck and a broken collarbone each came with two-month lay-offs.
Off contract and hoping to get another deal done with Manly before the season is out, Gosiewski wouldn't mind a few more renditions of the victory song as well.
"I want to finish off the year, we've got four games and fingers crossed there won't be any more injuries in that and I can finish off on a high," he says.
"I'm off contract at the moment and we're working through that now with Manly. We'll hopefully be able to sort something out and would like to have something sorted in the next couple of weeks.
"It's been a tough couple of years but it's part and parcel of the game. I've spent most of the year out injured so to get out there in first grade and get on the paddock is the best thing.
"For both me and the club I think the biggest thing has just been being able to play some footy.
"String seven or eight games together and start working on singing that winning song a bit more."
