Rugby convert's NRL comeback takes shape after freakish health scare
Wallaby-turned-Titan Carter Gordon is nearing a return from a health scare that derailed his rugby league initiation, with hope alive he will be fit to play in the final month of the NRL season.
Australia's 2023 Rugby World Cup five-eighth joined Sydney Roosters flyer Mark Nawaqanitawase as a high-profile code defector last year, with the former showing promising signs for Tweed Seagulls.
Twenty-four-year-old Gordon was pushing for a regular spot at the Gold Coast Titans, while announcing himself as the long-term successor to veteran half Kieran Foran, before suffering a spinal issue.
Gordon struggled with back spasms and headaches following an innocuous carry in the preseason before it was found he had suffered a cerebrospinal fluid leak – a condition affecting the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord.
While it was initially hoped the Brisbane Boys College product would not need surgery, he went under the knife in May and has resumed running.
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It remains a scant hope for Gordon to make his NRL debut, with his return likely to come through the Queensland Cup, but he is expected to resume contact training in the near future.
Titans halfback Tom Weaver remained optimistic, as he lamented what might have been.
'He had a massive preseason – he was one of our fittest, one of our strongest, and he would have had a cracking year,' Weaver said.
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