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Injured Inglis won't rush back to NRL

By Adam Cooper 06/06/2006 07:41:31 PM Comments (0)

Injured Melbourne Storm star Greg Inglis will not rush his rehabilitation and make a premature return to football, saying he doesn't want to end up in a wheelchair.

The Queensland winger has been ruled out of next Wednesday's Origin two clash against NSW at Suncorp Stadium after suffering a stress fracture in his lower back.

Though disappointed at not being able to front up against the Blues in Brisbane, Inglis made no apologies for not wanting to hurry back into football.

"Hopefully I've got 10 years in this business and I don't want to go up there and risk losing two years.

"It's a back injury and I don't want to wind up in a wheelchair.

"One bad knock and I could be out for three years and I don't want to risk that."

Inglis, who starred with two tries in his Origin debut last month, will be sidelined for at least the next fortnight because of the injury which causes prolonged pain in his back and tightness in his hamstrings and calves.

Storm manager performance unit Mary Toomey said it was important the teenager rested for at least a fortnight, so the Storm didn't take too kindly to an initial request from Queensland to fly Inglis to Brisbane to have him examined by Maroons medical staff.

"We have said to them that's not our preference and if their medical staff would like to look at him we would prefer that they flew their medical staff down to do that," Toomey said.

"It's not an ideal situation given the injury that he spend two-and-a-half hours in both directions going to Brisbane, sitting in a plane."

Asked if Queensland's request was a slap in the face, Toomey said: "I'll talk to them more about that later, I think they've been under a bit of pressure too."

Inglis is hopeful of playing in the third Origin clash in Melbourne on July 5.

"They're (the Maroons) hungry to get me back up there but I'm trying to get myself right," he said.

"Like Mary said, they're (the Maroons) probably feeling a lot of pressure at the moment, they're looking at four series losses in a row.

"I reckon they've got the right people up there to win this game, but hopefully I'll be all right for the third State of Origin in Melbourne.

"They've got to understand I'm also growing as well," he said.

"Melbourne Storm have been the team that have been trying to get the workload off me because I'm still growing a bit, but at the end of the day it is disappointing."

Toomey said Inglis had grown 6cm in the past year and adolescents were more prone to "over-use" injuries, such as stress fractures, when they were still growing because their bodies could not handle continual impact like those of mature athletes.

She said back injuries were varied, as it had taken young Melbourne prop Scott Anderson nine weeks to overcome a similar injury earlier this year.

Queensland has since called up Canberra's Adam Mogg to replace Inglis in the team.

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