John Bateman’s “mystery injury” revealed

John Bateman finally made his Wests Tigers last week before taking on Melbourne Storm yesterday in his second appearance.

The former Wigan Warriors forward move out to Australia was delayed by visa problems and police checks.

There were rumours that Bateman was dealing with an injury and that is why he missed the opening games.

But Bateman hit back at those claims telling Fox League after his debut: “Quite a lot of people have been saying ‘he’s injured blah, blah, blah.’

“I think all the people that were saying that have never done a pre-season before, it was just about getting some K’s in my legs.

“I’ve literally done a three-week pre-season so I didn’t want to go out and get an injury, we just wanted to be smart with it. It’s a long season.

“I was struggling a little bit in the first half but we got there in the end, the result wasn’t what we wanted but we’ve got something nice and we’re going to build on it.”

However, Bateman did suffer an injury in his second game against the Storm which ZeroTackle have described as “a mystery.”

“He came out and played in the second half, when he probably shouldn’t have,” coach Tim Sheens told reporters in the post-match press conference according to Fox League.

“He’s done no pre-season with us at all.

“He’s struggling big time with just getting used to the conditions, but it won’t be through lack of effort from him. He’s a determined bugger.

“We’ll need a scan and then check on his issues. We’ll wait and see.”

When asked what kind of injury Bateman had suffered, Sheens responded: “I’d prefer not to say, to be quite honest.”

However, it has been confirmed that this was a rib cartilage injury and that he has been cleared of an broken ribs according to NRL Physio.

This is why Bateman has been named in Wests’ team for this weekend’s clash.