How crashed vehicle & “gruesome” injury saw Australian star switch positions on route to NRL stardom

Australia have 13 debutants in their Rugby League World Cup squad named by Mal Meninga many of whom it is the first chance for British fans to watch them grace rugby league pitches on this side of the field.

Of course, halfback Nathan Cleary is the headline of the lot but Harry Grant, already a State of Origin hero and a Melbourn Storm star, won’t be far behind.

However, a rugby league career for so long seemed like it wasn’t meant to be. His career was nearly over at the age of 12 due to shoulder operations and a staph infection.

Later, things would get worse for Grant who was left with his leg hanging on by the tendon after a “gruesome” vehicle accident which saw his leg trapped under a surf-lifesaving ATV on the bench which had flipped over.

However, it was the incident that facilitated his switch to hooker and helped make him the star he is today.

“We crashed one of the surf-lifesaving ATVs on the beach,” Grant told the Sydney Morning Herald.

“We were on patrol and managed to flip it and land it right on my leg. It was a pretty ugly compound fracture and it was all pretty scary when it happened. She’s come good now but at the time it was very ugly.

“I was out for about a year. I look back on it now and I think everything happens for a reason, it was an external fix and it was kind of hanging on by the tendon. So it was pretty gruesome.

“But I was 14 then and after the infection in my shoulder, it meant I had been out for two years and when I came back – that’s when I moved into playing dummy half.

“The way I look at it, if that hadn’t happened, without those two years out I might not have ended up as a dummy half and ended up making a career of this.”