One of rugby league’s biggest injury mysteries of the year has been solved.
Bulldogs star Jacob Kiraz has revealed the full story of how he tore his left calf before the Wests Tigers game in round 13 and backed up nine days later to play amid a flurry of reports that he would be sidelined.
Kiraz was enormous against the Tigers with 261 running metres, seven tackle breaks and six offloads playing fullback, but he came off with three minutes to go with his team searching for a try at the death.
He then didn’t train at a session on Tuesday that was attended by media, but he downplayed it all and blamed it on cramps that forced him off a few days earlier.
Stories started coming out that he’d done his calf and would definitely miss the Eels clash on Monday, but Kiraz took the field and starred with 195m, nine tackle busts and seven offloads in their clunky win, with skipper Stephen Crichton also playing despite battling a shoulder injury.
The winger has now revealed exactly what happened and how he was able to play despite nursing an injury that should’ve kept him out for up to six weeks.
“I did it in the warm-up last week. I was running all right still, but I remember I went to the physios and I told them before the game that I’d done my calf,” he told the NewsWire as he walked through the Accor Stadium sheds with a heavy limp.
“I just said that it’s fine and I’ll play the game, and then we got scans afterwards. We didn’t think much of it. We knew that I’d done something, but I didn’t think it was that bad.
“When the physios told me what it was, I said to them ‘listen, nothing’s changed’.
“So the decision the whole week was to let me have the week off. I did a bit of the main session and that hurt because I love training and I just had to watch.
“It was sore, but I told them that I don’t really care about the pain. I’ll cop the pain as long as I can run and do what I do.”
The Tuesday media session was a tough one for Kiraz, who is deeply religious and insists he wasn’t lying about his calf.
“When I was answering, I was genuinely being honest. The reason I did come off that game was because of cramps for my hammy, so I actually wasn’t lying,” he smiled, later confirming he had to tell his mates to stop asking about the injury in a week where SuperCoach players were desperate to know about his availability.
“My calf was a bit sore, but I didn’t go off (against the Tigers) because of my calf. If anything, I actually got pissed off that I was taken off because of cramps. There was a bit of miscommunication where I should have stayed on, so I was really pissed off.
“I’m not going to go tell the opposition (that I’m hurt at a press conference). I know it sounds bad, but I was also trying to convince myself that it was nothing. I knew it was something, but I think the mind is very strong and that’s something I’ve learnt when I’ve had injuries.
“I should be out for six weeks, but every injury I come back early, and that’s not because I’m forcing it. I guess I get my mind in the right way where mentally I try to pretend it’s nothing.
“It’s probably not a good thing long term, but I give it all to God because even all the doctors were saying that it was a grade 2 and I should be out for six weeks.
“God’s on my side and it came at a good time because we’ve got the bye.”
Originally published as ‘I should be out for six weeks’: Jacob Kiraz reveals all as Bulldogs star lifts lid on major injury mystery