{"id":140998,"date":"2025-09-16T11:11:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T11:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/140998\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T11:11:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T11:11:11","slug":"konrad-hurrell-bids-emotional-st-helens-farewell-with-serious-injury-journey-recalled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/140998\/","title":{"rendered":"Konrad Hurrell bids emotional St Helens’ farewell with ‘serious’ injury journey recalled"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Konrad Hurrell has thanked St Helens as a club for taking a \u2018gamble\u2019 on him for this final year of his contract, a gamble that he admits ultimately hasn\u2019t worked out.<\/p>\n

After suffering a \u2018serious\u2019 neck injury in 2024, there were suggestions that the club would not renew his expiring contract but Saints took up another one-year deal<\/a> and whilst he\u2019s only played once in the Challenge Cup this season for St Helens, his off-field impact has been felt.<\/p>\n

Young outside backs Harry Robertson and Owen Dagnall have taken significant steps with both players spoken about and touted for big futures by Hurrell, who spoke with club media to reflect on his time at the club.<\/p>\n

He was officially deregistered from the club in late August<\/a> as they signed Shane Wright from Salford Red Devils and with Hurrell thanked for his \u2018understanding and help\u2019.<\/p>\n

The former Tongan international has now sat down with the club, in a video that can be viewed here<\/a>, to discuss his time as a St Helens player with a major focus being on his injury, his gratitude, and his role in 2025.<\/p>\n

Serious About Rugby League has launched a brand new podcast which can be watched in full on our YouTube channel here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

St Helens fan favourite Konrad Hurrell speaks on 2025 role<\/p>\n

As referenced, Hurrell has only played once for St Helens this year as he made an appearance in the Challenge Cup when Saints took on West Hull. Since then, he\u2019s spent time out on loan but he\u2019s also been in and around the group with Hurrell accepting that his role changed.<\/p>\n

He explained: \u201cBeing a professional and team rugby is not all about the field so I felt like my main focus is to work with the young boys and try to be the light off-field for the boys, give them a lot of s**t because it\u2019s been a tough year but we got back to winning ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve tried to be around the young boys to show them how I started and showcase that there is opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old only played 15 games in 2024 as injuries disrupted his season and they could have even brought about the end of his career with Hurrell explaining that it had been on \u2018ongoing\u2019 issue that became \u2018too serious\u2019.<\/p>\n

He explained: \u201cI went into a game, that was my last game, against Salford and I just lost the feeling in my legs and my shoulder. I played on that game and finished the game but it didn\u2019t feel right.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just trying to ignore it because I\u2019d got used to the pain but I went into an MRI scan and it came back quite serious.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time when the doctor told me the news, I literally just blacked out and luckily Millsy (physio) was there to calm me down and talk me through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Konrad Hurrell recalls \u2018dark place\u2019 after surgery<\/p>\n

As a result of that, Hurrell underwent surgery with his career on the line but he admitted that his \u2018ego\u2019 drove him to play on, with the centre expressing huge gratitude to St Helens for handing him a new one-year deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ended up having to have surgery on my neck,\u201d Hurrell said, adding: \u201cI think a lot of players have had it and come back but it was towards the end of my career so my ego didn\u2019t want to finish up on that note.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried my best to come back and I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d get another chance and contract but Wello and the club took a big gamble on me and I can\u2019t say how thankful I am for the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in a dark place but I was lucky my partner is there and my little one to get me through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hurrell added:\u00a0\u201cThe last nine months haven\u2019t been the best for me but at the same time, I was thankful for. I still get to put food on the table for my kids and family. They took a gamble on me and in some ways it didn\u2019t work out but I\u2019m thankful that I\u2019m still around and doing my best to help the boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the boys and his teammates, he said: \u201cTheir journey is not over, mine is, but I\u2019m still around the boys to help out and hopefully be in that group to lift the trophy at the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also spoke lovingly towards the club\u2019s fans with Hurrell being a genuine fan favourite and he explained why he is so generous with his time, after recalling his own childhood when he met members of the Tongan rugby union side.<\/p>\n

In final comments that surmise why his connection was so strong with the fans and why he will go down as a club legend, Hurrell said: \u201cI feel like players need to give back even two or three minute of our time to see one little kid be so excited to go to school and talk about it, because that\u2019s what I did.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to give back to the fans and if one kid takes that (excitement) then I\u2019m happy with it, that\u2019s the main reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can watch the full interview from SaintsTV with Konrad Hurrell here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Konrad Hurrell has thanked St Helens as a club for taking a \u2018gamble\u2019 on him for this final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-140998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}