Willie Peters has revealed that Micky McIlorum played through the pain of an ankle that is still fractured on Saturday night to help Hull KR win the Grand Final.
McIlorum had missed the last two months of KR’s season after breaking his ankle in training, but in what would be his last game as a professional player, he was drafted into the starting line-up by Willie Peters on Saturday night. It wasn’t a surprise, with Peters confirming earlier in the week that if the hooker was able to, he would play at Old Trafford.
And, he played the first 20 minutes against Wigan Warriors, helping the Robins get off on the right foot in the showpiece event before being replaced by Jez Litten as they went on to claim a 24-6 win and record an historic treble.
However, he took the field with an ankle that is still broken. Speaking after the game, Peters confirmed that McIlorum had been for scans two weeks before the Grand Final and it was revealed that the bone had not healed.
But, with one game to play before retirement, the 37-year-old was never going to miss the showpiece event.
“He shouldn’t have played tonight,” Peters said during his Grand Final winning press conference.
“He’s got a fractured ankle.”
Hull KR boss explains seriousness of Micky McIlorum injury
Speaking more about the Hull KR hooker, Peters said: “He’s the sort of player that if the players are in the dressing room or in team meetings and he talks and everyone lessons. Jez has been absolutely outstanding this year and we needed to get him on when we did nice and early in the game and I thought it was a good combination.
“His ankle is fractured, it’s been fractured for whatever it’s been but it’s not healed. He went and got scans a week and a half, two weeks ago and it wasn’t healed. It was just a matter of seeing how he could handle it.
“He trained last week and he trained well and he got through it but for Micky Mc to say he was sore and he couldn’t walk, that’s why he didn’t play last week and we had to see how it was this week. In his head, that was it. He was playing no matter what. He’s literally the toughest I’ve seen to be able to handle.
“When he did it, he did it in training and he was walking away from training, I asked him how he was feeling and he said he’ll soon find out. As soon as he said that I thought it’s not good news.
“He needed to go out the way he did and I thought for both of those guys, some people say at the back end of their career, they shouldn’t have been in the 17, absolutely they should be because what they do to help others around them, it was immense.”
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Treble completed for Hull KR 🏆🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/zGEPsURVCR
— Sky Sports Rugby League (@SkySportsRL) October 11, 2025
