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UPDATED: NRL Immortal Andrew Johns has revealed he’s urged Melbourne to send injured star Cameron Munster to a specialist in Sydney to fix a niggling groin issue.
Munster is yet to play this season and the Storm haven’t been able to put a date on his potential return to the team.
Munster has been sidelined by a groin injury he suffered during pre-season, which he then re-aggravated when he slipped in the shower on a team trip in Fiji.
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Johns battled his own groin injury for well over a year in the early 2000s, and underwent several surgeries.
Johns said Munster needed to put all his energy into getting his own groin right, or risk it shortening his career.
“It’s gonna be so tough for him. He’s at that age. He’s 30,” Johns said on Wide World of Sports’ Immortal Behaviour.
“And Munster being Munster, I was in the sheds (last week) and I was talking to him about it and he was skylarking a bit.
“I said, ‘mate, this will finish you. If you don’t get this right, this will finish you’. I think he realises how serious it is, because it is. It can just come and go for no reason.”
Johns said it was the “titanium elbows” of Sydney-based osteopath Kay Macpherson that fixed his own groin two decades ago, and recommended Munster pay her a visit.
“I reckon I’ve sent 12 to 15 players to Kay with groins and she fixed them all,” he said.
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“I spoke to the doctor at Melbourne … I said, ‘look, here’s this lady, I’m not standing on anyone’s toes, but this lady is the best’.”
Johns described the groin as “the most debilitating injury”.
“It was awful – I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning. I couldn’t couldn’t stand and put shorts or jeans on, I had to sit down,” he said.
“Coughing and sneezing was like a form of torture.
“It travels – sometimes (the pain) is in your belly, then it’s on the attachment and then it’s elsewhere.
“Then you feel like you’re right, then you start running, and then for no rhyme or reason, you wake up one morning and just go, ‘oh, I can’t get up’.”
Storm legend Cameron Smith accidentally revealed in a hot-mic moment the true extent of Munster’s injury might be far worse than first feared.
Smith accidentally made the public revelation while recording SEN’s Captains Run podcast with former Bronco Denan Kemp.
“It’s a bit concerning the Munster thing, hey,” Smith said.
“They have no idea – they actually have no idea when he is going to be okay. He can hardly run.
“The last I heard, which was before last week’s game, they (were) just like ‘mate, it’s a day-by-day thing’.”
The audio was accidentally published when the podcast was released. It was hastily removed, but not before the clip was circulated on social media.
Munster was named in the Storm’s extended round one side to face the Panthers but obviously didn’t play. His name has not been seen since.
In an interview on Nine’s post-game coverage of the Storm’s win over the Panthers, Munster joked the root of the problem was “old hips”, but hinted he could be out for some time.
“The physios haven’t really given me a timeframe and today I was pretty sore,” he said.
“I’m pretty restricted, I can only use a band at the moment and can’t really get out of a jog. I can’t really put my finger on it, we did scans and everything.”
With Munster and Jahrome Hughes both out, Jonah Pezet and Tyran Wishart have been named as the Storm’s halves against the Knights on Sunday.
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