Nathan Cleary has shared an update on the brutal injury he suffered in finals as he continues his road to recovery.
Penrith are hopeful their star halfback will be fit before the new season despite Cleary suffering injuries to his left leg and right foot.
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Cleary, 29, was unable to walk in the days after his injury, with a broken fibula placing him in a cast.
He also dislocated his tibia in the same leg, while X-rays showed a broken metatarsal in his right foot.
It had been a slow recovery process so far for Cleary, who revealed he has been in constant pain over the past few weeks.
“It’s been a very slow process and it’s just been different to any other injury I’ve had to deal with before,” Cleary told the Ausmerican Aces podcast.
“Every other injury, you know what you’re going through once you get surgery, it’s sort of just tick things off and you see progression.
“But this one’s just been up and down. One day it feels good, next day it’s sort of hurting again. It’s just sort of been quite a constant pain for five or so weeks after.
“I’m starting to turn a bit of a corner now and able to sort of get it out of the boot, get it moving.
“The other foot, it’s been pretty good like I’ve been able to weight bear on that through the boot, it was like a week after surgery so there was only like a five-day crossover where I wasn’t able to weight bear on either foot and that was challenging.”
Cleary revealed he has experienced a mindset change after initially having a victim mentality.
He said he will no longer take for granted things like walking and running, while also praising his girlfriend Mary Fowler, who flew to be by his side in the days following the injury.
“Well, she was only here for a week. She had to go back to England to get back playing. But by the end of it, I felt bad for her,” he added.
“It was like she needed a holiday from being back with me. It was too much. Like I was just laying there just asking for everything and she was an absolute … just amazing. She was a superstar. She did everything for me.
“I felt pretty bad. She was pretty tired going back to England and I think she was pretty happy to get away from me, to be honest. She was incredible.”
Fowler, 23, withdrew from the Matildas squad to be with Cleary, a move that reportedly left senior figures “unimpressed”.
Originally published as Nathan Cleary shares key injury update, reveals why he ‘felt bad’ for Mary Fowler