St George Illawarra recruit George Burgess has revealed that he was on the brink of retirement were it not for life-changing surgery.
Burgess, 29, was forced to step away from Super League side Wigan in 2020 and underwent hip resurfacing surgery last year.
After a gruelling seven months of rehabilitation, Burgess says he is happy to return to field completely free of pain.
“I got the Wigan boys around me and pretty much told them I was gutted that I had to retire,” Burgess said on SEN 1170 Breakfast.
“I had it in my head that this surgery was going to preserve my quality of life.
“I thought I may make a return to lower grade footy.
“After surgery, my pain was gone in my hips.
“I knew straight away I could give it (playing first grade) a good run.
“It’s feeling like I could come straight back into first grade. That’s how good my recovery has been.”
Burgess made an incident-free return to the NRL in St George’s first trial match against the Parramatta Eels.
Burgess said he feels even more confident in his ability to remain injury free throughout the 2022 NRL season.
“It was good just going into a game being fit and not being in pain,” Burgess continued.
“It’s quite a big difference to what I felt in my last 50 games.
“It was great to just get that first game and feel that full contact.
“I got a lot of confidence from that now.
“I’m really happy I got that first game before the Bunnies.”
Burgess will line up for the Dragons against his old side in South Sydney in the Charity Shield.
Notably, Burgess will face off against twin brother Tom for the first time in either of their careers.
“Tommy and I grew up attached to each other, so we were always competing,” he added.
“In terms of playing against each other on the footy field, that has never happened.”
The Charity Shield match is scheduled for February 26 in Mudgee.