Injured Cowboy Brent Tate says he knew straight away he had ruptured the ACL in his right leg when he went down hurt in Wednesday night’s State of Origin game two at ANZ Stadium in Sydney.
Although it has yet to be confirmed by scans, the Queensland winger is certain he has suffered the fourth serious knee injury of his career and that he will miss the rest of the 2014 NRL season.
“I felt the pop and it probably hurt more than the other ones which is a bit strange,” Tate said today.
“I definitely knew from the get go that (a torn ACL) was the case.”
Tate was on crutches when he returned home to Townsville today and will take some time before deciding what to do about this latest potentially career-ending setback.
His last knee reconstruction – on his left knee – came at the end of the 2010 season and since then he has played 66 NRL matches for North Queensland, as well as being part of the Maroons run-on team for the past three seasons and the Kangaroos last year.
“There’s a whole heap of emotions at the moment,” the 32-year-old said.
“It’s time to take a big, deep breath and see where we end up from here I guess.
“I’ve done my ACL again so it will be a knee reconstruction which I’m not really looking forward to.
“I’ll just take a couple of days now to digest it all a little bit and see what the outcome is from the scans, see exactly how bad it all is.
“It’s all pretty raw at the moment and the disappointment is pretty big.”
Meanwhile, Cowboys co-captain Matt Scott will have surgery tonight on the fractured cheekbone he suffered in the first half on Wednesday night.
He remained in Sydney for scans this morning and is not expected home until the weekend.
It is highly unlikely he will be available for the Origin finale in Brisbane on 9 July.
