{"id":220440,"date":"2025-10-17T14:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T14:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/220440\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T14:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T14:43:07","slug":"eating-away-at-me-carter-gordon-opens-up-on-return-to-rugby-union-after-brief-titans-stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/220440\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Eating away at me\u2019: Carter Gordon opens up on return to rugby union after brief Titans stay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Carter Gordon says his decision to return to rugby union stemmed from \u201cunfinished business\u201d, and from the perspective he gained while being confined to bed for months earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old, who recently signed a three-year deal with the Queensland Reds after parting ways with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/rugby-league\/gold-coast-titans\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gold Coast Titans<\/a>, admitted that his spell away from the game forced him to reassess what truly mattered.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Gordon suffered a spinal fluid leak that required surgery and left him bedridden for three months, derailing his high-profile switch to the NRL.<\/p>\n<p>MORE:\u00a0<a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/rugby-league\/news\/jonah-pezet-set-decide-future-three-clubs-running\/5421e910d9fb818892b857ef\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jonah Pezet set to decide future with three clubs in the running<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2018Probably the toughest year I\u2019ve been through\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a pretty tough year,\u201d Gordon told The Courier-Mail. \u201cProbably the toughest year I\u2019ve ever been through in my career, physically and mentally. I obviously suffered a spinal fluid leak in the early part of the pre-season, and then it took a long time to fully diagnose it&#8230; Three months of being pretty much bedridden was pretty tough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said the experience reshaped how he viewed his sporting journey. \u201cAfter the injury, it changed my perspective on a few things. I think looking at it now, it\u2019s definitely something I wouldn\u2019t want to give up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Wallaby, who made his Test debut in 2023 before an injury curtailed his World Cup campaign, said the thought of leaving things unfinished lingered during his time in rugby league.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think just having unfinished business in union [motivated me to return]. I felt like I left a bit on the table, and that was eating away at me a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gordon\u2019s comeback with the Reds puts him back in contention for Wallabies selection, just as the side prepares to face Eddie Jones\u2019 Japan, the coach who first handed him his Test debut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carter Gordon says his decision to return to rugby union stemmed from \u201cunfinished business\u201d, and from the perspective&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-220440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}