Marion Seve's triumphant NRL return after cancer, freak eye injury
Seve, 30, has endured some wretched battles already in life, with the Storm centre diagnosed with stage 3 testicular cancer that spread to his liver when he was 17.
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He showed incredible strength to get through that but has had to deal with several setbacks on the field, with Seve rupturing his ACL in 2020 before he suffered a season-ending ankle injury last year.
Opportunities have been hard to come by for the Samoan international, who feared his career was going to come to a premature end back in June when he copped an accidental boot to his right eye while playing for the Bears in NSW Cup.
He was told he could lose his eyesight permanently if he copped another blow to the eye, which is why the Storm organised for him to become the first player in NRL history to wear protective goggles on the field.
They worked as he scored a hat-trick in his first game back for the Bears, with Seve then scoring a crucial try in his first game of the season for the Storm on Thursday night to help them stun the Panthers – the team he was playing when he suffered the freak injury.
'I don't think I've ever seen a player be as unlucky with injuries as Marion Seve,' Bellamy said.
'You just marvel at his resilience and that he keeps trying and looks to get back into it.
'He is a really talented player, he's strong and he likes the physical side of the game, but he just seems to get these injuries right at the time when you don't need to get an injury.
Goggles are down, and Marion Seve puts the Storm back in front.
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'He's so unlucky, but he's such a good guy around the club. I think everyone in the club watching him would be so happy for him because he got what he deserved.'
The goggles, his faith and the support of everyone at the club helped Seve return to the field, with the luckless centre getting the moment he thoroughly deserved after years of torture.
'It (the eye injury) happened so quickly during the game, and by the time I got to hospital, I couldn't see anything,' he recalled.
'I'm just grateful for the surgeons and the physios at the club for helping me. I'm just glad it's OK now and I'm back playing.
'My faith (kept me going). I'm really strong in church and believe in God. I have a strong support crew around me with my family and here at the club with the physios, the boys and the doctors.
'You can say that I'm unlucky, but I'm lucky to be here right now and still playing. I'm so grateful for that.'
Seve joked that he wished the goggles had wipers due to Sydney's shocking weather, although that would have given his teammates more ammunition for nicknames.
'I started laughing. Not laughing because I was wearing it, but laughing because I knew the boys were going to give me stick for it,' he said.
'I knew in my head I could picture them calling me all sorts of names like 'superhero'. I've got Ninja Turtles, pirate, cyborg.
'They say the goggles give me superpowers.
'I think I'm just approaching each game differently now. You don't understand until you have a setback in your life, especially during sport (how bad it can be).
'You get injuries and whatnot, but this eye injury was pretty traumatic for me. Every game for me now is going out there and having fun and just trying my best.'
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