2 weeks Ago By Max McKinney
Tyson Gamble's back injury got so bad there were times he couldn't make the five-minute drive from his home to training without having to pull over and lay back the driver's seat to relieve the pain. Login or signup to continue reading The Knights playmaker, who has been named to return against Cronulla on Sunday, was injured in an awkward tackle at training last year which left him with a bulging disc. Over the course of the past nine months, it flared up at various stages in between periods where it was fine.
"It wasn't fun," Gamble said, speaking before training at Broadmeadow on Thursday. "Some days were really good. I'd go through months .
.. where I wouldn't have a problem, but as soon as I hurt it, I struggled to get out of bed.
The couple of weeks leading up to surgery was the worst pain I've ever felt. "It was that bad I couldn't eat. I couldn't sit at a table.
I live five minutes from here and I had to keep pulling over and laying my seat down to straighten out so the nerve wasn't stretched. "I think I lost about five or six kilos in two weeks. It was pretty hard to put back on, but I'm glad that's done now.
I'm glad I got the surgery. It's a bit nerve-racking going in and you're going to have surgery so close to your spine ..
. but it was the best thing I could have done." Gamble is yet to feature for the Knights this campaign.
He played in a pre-season trial game in mid-February , but ahead of the side's second trial a week later , his back again became a problem. After cortisone injections which had previously helped him get by "didn't do anything", he was sent for microdiscectomy surgery . "It was instant relief," Gamble said.
"As soon as I woke up from surgery, the pain, the numbness in my leg, was gone. I was up walking within the hour, and then it's just been a slow and steady build with the physios and the staff here. Six weeks later, I'm playing footy.
"I don't want to recommend someone to get surgery, it's pretty daunting, but the way I've come out of it is amazing. I feel like a new person ..
. It's, I don't want to say life-changing, but I guess you can take for granted some of the things when you're in pain ..
. I feel ten-times better than what I did." While Gamble's pain may be gone, the lay-off period has been a challenge to overcome.
He's had to firstly recover from the surgery itself, build himself back up physically overall and as coach Adam O'Brien said earlier this week "tick off a few boxes" to prove his fitness. Gamble said that had largely been achieved ahead of an important defensive session on Thursday. In recent days, he was tasked with wrestling Newcastle's pathways director Adam Blair - a former rampaging Kiwis forward who played 331 NRL games, most of them for Melbourne when the Storm led the way with wrestling techniques.
"That was not fun," Gamble said. "I forgot how bad wrestle was. "But I've had contact sessions with Kai [Pearce-Paul], with Kai being out as well, we had a few sessions together.
'Dyl' [Lucas], we've been running for the last couple of weeks. We've had a few of us in that rehab room, which is not a good thing, but it was good for me because I wasn't by myself. I got to talk to people and get out of my own head.
" Renowned for his competitiveness, Gamble said he had been "pissed off" watching Newcastle's past three games, consecutive losses to Wests Tigers (20-4), Canterbury (20-0) and Gold Coast (26-6). The energetic playmaker could be just what the team needs amid an attacking form slump, which includes a club-record low of 46 points in their opening five games. The 28-year-old has been named to play halfback, the position he trained at most of the summer along with Jack Cogger.
It looked like Gamble would get first crack in the role after a handy showing in the side's first pre-season fixture, but he has been sidelined ever since. Instead, Cogger wore the No.7 jersey in four out of five games.
In the 64 NRL appearances he has made, and dozens more in the lower grades, Gamble has played the vast majority of them at five-eighth. But with Newcastle switching Fletcher Sharpe to five-eighth this year, he has had to switch to halfback, a role he felt wasn't much different. "I'm a bit louder than he is," Gamble said of Sharpe.
"Talking comes naturally to me. I just naturally do that for him and Kalyn. Being a louder voice, it takes away from their worries, and they can just focus on going after the game, which they both do really well.
"They've been a little bit uptight the last couple of weeks, because they haven't been really sure on what to do and where to go, and to be fair, the errors and the amount of defence we have had to do over the past few games, has not helped. "I'm excited to get out there and hopefully be the voice that the team needs, and get us around the park." Gamble was sidelined when the Knights signed Dylan Brown last month on a record 10-year, $13 million deal.
The Eels playmaker is expected to partner Fletcher Sharpe in the halves next season, potentially putting Gamble, who is contracted until the end of 2026, down the pecking order. Asked about the implications of Brown's impending arrival, Gamble somewhat welcomed his addition but said any concerns he had would be put on the back burner until after this season. "It's good for the club, I understand why they did it," he said.
"But I've got to worry about me, and that's next year, I haven't even played a game of footy yet. "All my focus has been on getting back to this moment, getting back to training with the boys, getting back to playing a game on Sunday. "The Dylan Brown stuff can start next year.
"We've got a whole season to go, and we need to turn it around now, and make sure we're heading in the right direction." Max McKinney is a sports reporter with the Newcastle Herald. He previously worked in news, covering mainly local government and transport.
Max mostly reports on the Newcastle Knights, but also covers a mix of local sport. Max McKinney is a sports reporter with the Newcastle Herald. He previously worked in news, covering mainly local government and transport.
Max mostly reports on the Newcastle Knights, but also covers a mix of local sport. Daily Today's top stories curated by our news team. Also includes evening update.
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