Jermaine McGillvary reveals it is “a miracle” he didn’t retire after Morgan Knowles hip drop tackle

Jermaine McGillvary made headlines yesterday when he wished Wigan Warriors’ Mike Cooper all the best after he suffered an ACL following Morgan Knowles’ hip drop tackle in the St Helens-Wigan derby.

McGillvary also suffered a nasty injury to a similar tackle from Knowles in 2022 and he said had he suffered an ACL to that injury he would have retired.

“It is awful, it is a tackle where the tackler doesn’t have control of their body and their weight is going through you,” he explained the tackle technique.

“Lucky for me, it was an unlucky tackle, that I got to play on because if it was a my ACL I am going to have to retire and it would take me 12 months to recover.”

He then revealed that it was a miracle he didn’t suffer an ACL and retire:

“I was going to retire, but luckily it was just a broken leg, a ruptured MCL, PCL, and my ACL was swollen and the surgeon said it was a miracle it didn’t go.

“Still to this day I can’t straighten my right knee from that.

“I have seen a few comments saying it is a contact sport, but the same thing has happened to another player who is the same age as me and is he going to have to retire because of that.

“I would have retired if I had suffered that injury.”

However he believes Knowles didn’t do it intentionally:

“Did Morgan Knowles mean to do it? I Don’t think he did. I don’t know him personally, I know the Head Coach at Saints and some of the boys and some of them are the most professional in the game, I don’t think he meant to do it but it is just a poor selection of a tackle technique.

“Sometimes it is tough in the heat of the moment and we are all putting our bodies on the line.”