Player injury diary: Blake Anders

The Queensland Rugby League’s player injury diary, presented by TPIL Lawyers, provides greater insight into how our Hostplus Cup and BMD Premiership athletes return from injury and how they overcome the physical and mental challenges that can come with being sidelined.

This week, Brisbane Tigers back Blake Anders shares his story on missing season 2024 after suffering an ACL rupture at the back end of his strongest pre-season yet.

Player injury diary: Blake Anders

Heading into the 2024 Hostplus Cup season – what was supposed to be my first with the Brisbane Tigers - I had just finished one of my best pre-seasons that I’ve ever had.

I was feeling at the top of my game.

But in the final trial game against Redcliffe, right before the season kicked off, it all changed for me.

I got the ball off a scrum and went to step off my right foot when it felt like my knee buckled. There was no one around me and my leg just gave way.

I was in a fair bit of pain straight away and couldn’t stand for a few minutes… I couldn’t think about anything else initially really, the pain was just really bad.

It eventually went away so I hobbled off the field and I iced it straight away but we weren’t immediately sure what happened.

It wasn’t until the head physio watched the video and told me I should start preparing for the worst that we started to think it was my ACL.

That’s the first time it sunk in that it could be something pretty serious.

I went for a scan and I had that hope I hadn’t done anything too bad. But when I went to the scan, they told me not to do anything on it until the physio got back to me.

The results came back the next day and the head physio rang me up and let me know what had happened.

It was no other damage, just solely an ACL rupture. I went back and watched the video myself and it was one of those non-contact ones that didn’t look real pretty.

After the pre-season I’d had, realising you have a pretty long recovery journey ahead of you and it’s going to be hard work can be tough.

But once you realise that, it can also be pretty easy.

My worst injury prior to this was when I did my ankle in 2021 playing Colts at Wynnum Manly. I had to have tightrope syndesmosis surgery and was out for about 12 weeks.

Obviously, the ACL keeps you out for longer. The first few weeks waiting to start the process, that’s the toughest period. You can’t do anything.

I went in for a consult with Dr Timothy McMeniman once I got the results of my scan and he talked me through the process of what’s best for my knee.

I had to wait about four weeks until I could get in for the operation. I had pretty bad bruising and he wanted the swelling to go down before I went in.

And then two to three weeks post-surgery, you’re bedridden.

I know everyone says it but playing footy, you definitely take it for granted. Sitting around doing nothing, it’s pretty tough, and I didn’t realise how it was going to be.

Then it’s not just the footy side of life, it’s everything.

I’m lucky enough that my job is a support worker, working with kids with a disability. I only missed eight weeks of work so I was lucky enough to get back to that pretty quickly again. But you also can’t do simple things, like drive for a fair while.

I’m also lucky that I have a good support group around me and being around my friends helped distract me a lot until I could start the whole process.

The club and playing group were also really supportive and have really helped me get through to the point I’m at now.

I do enjoy watching footy as well so I watched a fair bit during those weeks and you learn a fair bit when you’re watching, not playing, so that’s been good for me.

And when it comes to my leg, I’m in a good place now. I just had my three-month check-up last month.

I’ve started squatting and lifting in the gym, although just light. It’s all about building up the muscle again in my knee.

I’ve also started running on the AlterG treadmill and I’m at 65 per cent body weight. I’m getting closer to being allowed to run in a straight line on the field.

Our club physio, Mitchell Chad, he’s been massive for me.

Three times a week I get to go in and see him. He does all our programming. Before him, I wouldn’t have found out about this AlterG running.

He’s big on doing everything right and not trying to rush everything. It’s not about how much you do but the quality of what you do - the things you can do you want to do them at a high quality.

As for getting back to playing, I just have to build off that strong pre-season now.

I still have a long journey ahead of me but I take all of this as an opportunity to get bigger, stronger, faster.

I should be back around pre-season trials next year so nothing really changes in the end. I just have a bit longer to prepare for a bigger season next year.