Penrith superstar Nathan Cleary has shared a candid update on his brutal injury recovery while praising partner Mary Fowler for her incredible support during the ordeal.
Cleary broke the fibula and dislocated the tibia in his left leg during the Panthers’ loss to Newcastle in the preliminary final in September.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Nathan Cleary’s injury recovery and Mary Fowler’s support
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The horrific injuries came after the broken foot he suffered on his right side earlier in the finals series.
He has since underwent multiple rounds of surgeries on both legs and is still recovering.
Speaking to the Ausmerican Aces podcast, Cleary said the injury is nothing like he has every experienced before.
Nathan Cleary endured multiple surgeries following the horrific injury. Credit: Getty / Instagram
“It’s been a very slow process and it’s just been different to any other injury I’ve had to deal with before,” he said.
“Every other injury, you know what you’re going through once you get surgery, it’s sort of just tick things off and you see progression.
“But this one’s just been up and down. One day it feels good, next day it’s sort of hurting again. It’s just sort of been quite a constant pain for five or so weeks after.
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“I’m starting to turn a bit of a corner now and able to sort of get it out of the boot, get it moving.
“The other foot, it’s been pretty good like I’ve been able to weight bear on that through the boot, it was like a week after surgery so there was only like a five-day crossover where I wasn’t able to weight bear on either foot and that was challenging.”
Cleary said he has been forced to change his mindset throughout the recovery period. While initially feeling sorry for himself, he now has a greater perspective of the situation.
“Through this injury it’s actually been quite cool to see my mindset sort of change,” he continued.
“At the start, you have the victim mentality. It’s ‘why me?’ and you’re down in the dumps. As I sort of progress through it and you sort of see light at the end of the tunnel, perspective changes and you sort of realise that, I’m lucky to be able to improve each day where there’s some people that can’t do that and they’re stuck in wheelchairs for life.
“I want to keep this mindset that once I’m back walking and running, it’s like you don’t take those things for granted. It’s the every day luxuries that I was taking for granted for sure.”
Clearly also reserved special praise for his “incredible” partner Fowler, who took time away from her own career to help Cleary recover.
“Well, she was only here for a week. She had to go back to England to get back playing. But by the end of it, I felt bad for her,” he joked.
“It was like she needed a holiday from being back with me. It was too much. Like I was just laying there just asking for everything and she was an absolute … just amazing. She was a superstar. She did everything for me.
“I felt pretty bad. She was pretty tired going back to England and I think she was pretty happy to get away from me, to be honest. She was incredible.”
Cleary was also grateful for the support from his family and friends, while he hopes to get back by Round 1 but added that it’s still too early to know if that will plan will come to fruition.
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