St Helens’ star Lewis Dodd has revealed the awful injury that he played through in 2023 as part of the effort to lift a final Grand Final trophy for retiring teammates James Roby and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook.
Dodd will turn 22 before the start of the 2024 campaign but at such a young age he’s already had such huge success, being a member of three Grand Final winning teams and of course lifting a World Club Challenge too.
After injury saw him miss much of the 2022 campaign it was a fairy-tale ending for him to slot the drop goal that won Saints the World Club Challenge down under in February, and it kicked off what would be Dodd’s most active season yet.
He played a mammoth 33 games during the year, having only played a total of 34 in his previous three seasons with the club, however he’s revealed that he did it whilst nursing a major injury.
“I had surgery on my shoulder in the off-season after tearing my labrum halfway through last year,” Dodd revealed to Saints TV.
A labrum tear is a serious injury, the labrum being the cartilage tissue within the shoulder joint socket, something that is evidently overworked when you’re a rugby league player making passes from scrum-half.
Incredibly Dodd managed to go throughout the season without surgery, highlighting just how tough a player the youngster is but he explained exactly why he decided to forego surgery and play through the pain barrier.
He told SaintsTV: “I had the surgery at the end of the season so I am currently in the middle of rehab now but it’s all good.
“I had to play on with a lot of strapping and painkillers, but with it being Robes’ and Louie’s last year I didn’t want to let anyone down. It is the same with whoever you ask about injury because you just don’t want to let the team down.
“You just get out there and I felt like I was good to go and felt like I would not let the boys down. That was the main reason.”
It was a brave call for Dodd especially having missed so much of the 2022 campaign due to an achilles injury that he suffered during the Good Friday win over rivals Wigan.
With the season confirmed as starting in mid February it could well be that there is a race for Dodd to get fit for Saints’ opener against new boys London Broncos.
