Catalans Dragons’ scrum-half Josh Drinkwater is taking a step into the unknown as he recovers from a mystery foot injury that has baffled medical experts around the world.
The 29-year-old Australian has sustained a tendon injury so rare that doctors struggled to find it and club physiotherapists in Super League and the NRL are keen to study his case.
“It’s a weird one,” Drinkwater told League Express.
“They couldn’t find it at first, that’s why the scans took so long to study it.
“It’s a tiny tendon no-one has ever heard of, but all I know is that it was extremely painful.
“I thought I had broken it at first and now I wish I had, because it would have been much easier.
“The pain has gone away and it seems to be healing, so hopefully I’ll be fit in a couple of weeks, but it was a worry when everyone was saying it was the first time they had heard of it.
“Our club physio Rob Parkinson is made up; I’m sure he’s doing some kind of thesis on it.
“I even contacted medics back in Australia and NRL physios and they drew a blank, so I’m not sure what to expect.”
Coach Steve McNamara admitted that there was some guesswork when Drinkwater’s plastic medical boot was removed at the weekend, adding: “There’s a bit of the unknown about Josh’s injury.
“We looked all over France, England, Australia and even America for advice, but not many people have experienced it, so you don’t really know how he will recover.
“Normally you know what to expect with a tendon but this one is a mystery.
“However, we can tell by the way Josh is reacting that it looks very positive.
“Josh struggles when he’s injured. He’s very rarely hurt and he finds it difficult to be out of action, but he’s been very professional and looked after himself superbly, so we hope to have him back very soon, maybe even for our next game against Huddersfield.”
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