{"id":62001,"date":"2025-08-12T07:39:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T07:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/62001\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T07:39:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T07:39:14","slug":"former-wallaby-carter-gordon-finally-set-for-rugby-league-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/62001\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Wallaby Carter Gordon finally set for rugby league comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Wallabies fly-half Carter Gordon is set to play his first rugby league game in 357 days after an inspirational return from surgery following a spinal fluid leak.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old will play in the halves for Gold Coast’s affiliate club Ipswich in the Queensland Cup clash with Clydesdales in Miles on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Gordon underwent successful surgery in Perth in May under the care of neurosurgeon Dr Arul Bala.<\/p>\n

Signed to Gold Coast in mid-2024 on a two-year deal for 2025-26, the ex-Rugby World Cup playmaker is yet to debut in the NRL due to injury.<\/p>\n

But he has worked his way back over the past three months, including the last four to six weeks in full contact training.<\/p>\n

Gordon’s last game was on Aug. 24 last year when allocated to the other Titans feeder club Tweed Heads.<\/p>\n

He returns to action after a challenging year and as a new father to six-week-old daughter Ellie with fianc\u00e9e Abbey.<\/p>\n

“It’s super-exciting. I had a bit of a crazy year with the injury and having a baby so it’s a bit of a full-circle moment,” 24-year-old Gordon told AAP.<\/p>\n

“I came into the game fresh and I’ve had a lot of time to watch rugby league and learn from that so it is very exciting to get on the field and put into action what I’ve learnt.”<\/p>\n

Carter Gordon has endured a torrid off-field battle since his switch from rugby union\u00a0Chris Hyde\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In preseason Gordon woke up one morning with a sore back.<\/p>\n

Then he would get shooting pain in the head and the back of the neck any time he sat up or stood up.<\/p>\n

For two weeks he laid flat on his back, only getting up to go to the toilet. He ate all his food lying down.<\/p>\n

Gordon started feeling better and it got to the point where he could start doing some training, mainly running and work in the gym.<\/p>\n

The realisation hit home however that something else needed to be done.<\/p>\n

Dr Bala had the answer.<\/p>\n

“I’d spoken to other surgeons and obviously there is a lot of risk involved,” Gordon said.<\/p>\n

“That can be scary for both parties but when I saw Dr Bala in person in Perth he was super-confident to get the surgery done. He said, ‘it is bread and butter surgery’ and he was happy for me to start contact eight weeks after surgery.”<\/p>\n

Staying mentally strong was a challenge through the recovery process but Gordon stayed focused on the day-to-day process.<\/p>\n

“It’s hard to look ahead when you don’t really have a set plan. It took so long to get the surgery done and properly diagnose what had happened,” Gordon said.<\/p>\n

“By the time we did have a plan it was all about moving forward and looking good to come back and play.<\/p>\n

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“In the trenches with the injury it was hard to think about anything else because it was quite a traumatic experience. I’m very grateful to be out the other side.”<\/p>\n

Gordon played eight Tests for the Wallabies. He has trained at centre and in the halves at the Titans but it is a playmaker that he aims to make his mark in the NRL.<\/p>\n

“I am playing six for Ippy (Ipswich) I believe. That’s where I see myself long term,” Gordon said.<\/p>\n

“I still want to get games in this year for Q Cup and depending how I am going hopefully get an NRL debut.<\/p>\n

“My focus right now is getting on the field and doing my best for Ippy.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Wallabies fly-half Carter Gordon is set to play his first rugby league game in 357 days after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-62001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62001","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=62001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}