Rugby league finals rely on painkillers for quick recoveries, as injuries become manageable with injections, prioritizing immediate performance over long-term health.
We've arrived in rugby league's painkiller knockouts, when the winner will be decided less by aesthetics than anaesthetics.
Injuries are no longer what we normally think of as injuries. Isaah Yeo's pectoral rupture, usually requiring months of rehab, kept him off the field for four weeks. Nathan Cleary's foot and Brayden Trindall's shoulder can be needled into the never-never. Even Sam Walker's season-ending syndesmosis injury looks like it might only be season-pausing.
It's the finals. Needle up. The future be damned.
These are just the miraculous recoveries we know about. Barrels of powerful painkillers have enjoyed fabled triumphs in rugby league history. Liam Martin played almost every week of Penrith's last premiership with injections in his shoulder. Cleary stopped feeling his excruciating hip after a needle during this year's Origin series.