Gosiewski fighting hard to overcome disc infection

Jack Gosiewski sure can complicate an injury through no direct fault of his own.

His latest knock seems another case of sheer bad luck.

But Manly would like the aggressive second-rower back on the field.

Midway through the 2018 season he broke his right forearm, had surgery, but three weeks later an infection meant he needed another operation to clean things up.

Currently the Sea Eagles forward is sidelined for an indefinite period because he picked up an infection after back surgery mid-November last year.

He had nursed the problem of lower-back pain through the final months of 2019.

"It was at the start of pre-season. I had back surgery as I had bulging discs," he told NRL.com, which put pressure on the spinal cord.

"So I got them shaved. I was coming back all right from that but got an infection in one of the discs so I'm on antibiotics now – it's rare.

"And I'll be on antibiotics for a while. I'm waiting for results to see what is causing the infection.

"Once we know that then the next step in the process will happen, whether that's an IV drip for a while to clear it all up."

He has managed to keep his fitness at reasonable levels.

"I've been able to do light gym work. Before we knew about the infection I was running.

"But it got to a stage that I was in too much pain with even running."

His return date to the Sea Eagles side is still unknown. The talented 25-year-old was named in Brad Fittler's Emerging Blues side for 2020 so he'd like to see his face back in the first grade line-up soon.

Then again, his two years at South Sydney before arriving at Manly in 2018 were littered with a few stumbling blocks as well.

"I've had plenty of injuries so I just go back into that process of getting healed," Gosiewski said.

"It is frustrating though because you want to see results."

The vibe that Manly is going to have a good season in 2020 keep pushing him along. (He spoke to NRL.com a week before round one, when the coronavirus had not taken hold of Australian sport.)

"It is definitely driving me. We had a good year last season. We were a top-eight side and that was not even with our strongest 17 as we had quite a few injuries.

"So whichever teams have their best players on the field will continue on from last year. Crossed fingers we don't get that injury run again so we hopefully finish top four and get stuck into the finals."

Gosiewski started six times in 2019 and came off the bench on 13 occasions.

"I would have been pushing for a starting spot this pre-season if I'd been able to train properly," he said.

"Footy is always a long season and you never know what might happen. I hopefully will be back earlier than people think so I can put my best foot forward."