It’s been greater than two years since Michael Morgan hung up his boots, however the Cowboys legend nonetheless can’t definitively say he’s proud of the choice.
Morgan, who now lives a really completely different life working in finance, medically retired two video games into the 2021 season as a result of a difficult shoulder damage.
The Townsville product handled shoulder issues within the first two video games of the 2020 season and was ready to make use of the sport’s shutdown to his benefit.
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FOX LEAGUE PODCAST – MICHAEL MORGAN
Cowboys legend Michael Morgan opens up on the damage that pressured him into early retirement. He additionally re-lives his iconic flick cross within the 2015 NRL Grand Final, filling Johnathan Thurston’s sneakers in 2017 and touches on life working in finance.
“Within those two games my shoulder came out maybe five times so it was always going to be a tough ask to get through the season,” Morgan informed the Fox League Podcast.
“After the second game, the Covid break happened so we thought ‘this is an opportunity that could work in our favour. If I have the shoulder fixed, by the time the season actually started again I might be OK — or I won’t miss as many games as I would if I tried to get through.’
“We thought if I missed four games after the Covid break, that’s a win. That was the goal when I had the surgery. I had it done the week after I finished, pretty much straight away and then it just was never getting better.”
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The recreation was suspended in March and picked again up for Round 3 in May. Morgan ought to’ve solely missed a handful of video games however an an infection delayed his return, earlier than a calf damage in his third recreation again finish his season.
“It was about three months in (recovery), I had a follow up scan and there was an abnormality in it,” Morgan mentioned about his shoulder.
“The surgeon sent me for an MRI and there was a white blob so it was a big infection and that’s what really did the damage.
“I did get back that year — a lot later than I would’ve liked — but the shoulder never really felt the same. It wasn’t back to what it was beforehand. And after surgery it wasn’t going to be… But when you’ve been through enough injuries you just know when something is right and when it isn’t.
“I tore my calf anyway so that finished the season.”
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Morgan, who was 29 on the time, hoped issues can be completely different the next season. But he knew it was going to be uphill battle.
After working his bottom off over the summer time, an innocuous deal with in Round 2 did the harm.
He performed by means of the ache to complete the sport simply in case it was his final.
And it was. Morgan introduced his retirement just below three weeks later.
“Going into 2021, that’s when I thought ‘I don’t know how long it’ll last the way it is, but I want to give it every chance to be OK’,” he recalled.
“I worked on it all off-season, I did as much work on my body as I had ever done before in my career and unfortunately the second game in (it was injured again).
“It was a pretty normal tackle really, but I felt a massive crunch through my shoulder and it was the screws becoming loose again. The two screws put in broke. It was just never really the same after the infection.
“I finished the game because I thought if this is the last one, I don’t want to go off.
“That doesn’t mean my mind was made up then, I went through the process of finding out if I was to keep going, what it would look like — that’s why it (the decision) was drawn out to April.”
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Naturally, it was a tough name to make. But he admitted was “also relief” after enduring a brutal rehabilitation course of simply to get again onto the sector.
“It was difficult but when I made the decision there was also relief because I didn’t have to go through it all again.
“The hardest recovery I had ever done in my career was on my shoulder. Getting back to playing was by far the most draining — physically and mentally — (experience) in my career.
“The thought of doing it all again for it to potentially not be worth it and being back in the same position… there was a fair bit of relief.”
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Although he felt relieved, there have been nonetheless loads of doubts over the choice.
He was a premiership-winner, a former Dally M Halfback of the Year and a Queensland and Kangaroos consultant. But because the late Paul Green — former Cowboys coach — mentioned: “I don’t think we ever got to see the best of ‘Morgo’… He was really coming into his prime.”
Morgan, now 31, admitted he genuinely query the choice.
“I won’t lie, I had a lot of nights laying in bed questioning whether I was doing the right thing,” he mentioned.
“I’d be back at the club doing a bit of training thinking ‘was it the right decision and should I be doing it?’ But at the end you have to live with your decisions.”
Morgan revealed he turned to Billy Slater for some recommendation within the course of given the Storm champion had battled with shoulder accidents throughout his embellished profession.
But it was a tough reality from Morgan’s spouse that satisfied him to make the decision.
“It was actually my wife who made the point of saying ‘how bad does it need to be before it is enough as in you don’t have full use of your shoulder?’ I had a young daughter and thought maybe that’s right and at that point it was OK for every day life… That’s what made me think it was right to finish,” he mentioned.
It’s been two years and two-and-a-half months since he fronted the media to announce his retirement.
When requested if he’s nonetheless proud of that call, Morgan hesitated earlier than saying: “Umm… Yeah…
“I think I am because I look at it now and I had a good run,” he added.
“Yes I would’ve liked my career to go for longer but if you told me when I was a 15-year-old boy that I’d have the career I did, I’d be stoked.
“I’m still grateful for what I got to do — it would’ve been nice to do it more — but I’m lucky to do what I did.”
Listen to the complete Fox League Podcast with Michael Morgan HERE >
Source: www.foxsports.com.au