Rabbitohs captain Cameron Murray suffers season-ending setback after Achilles injury

News.com.au

22-04-2025

Rabbitohs skipper Cameron Murray has been dealt a horror injury setback, with the Souths forward set to miss the entire 2025 season.
After rupturing his Achilles tendon during the pre-season, Murray was expected to return a few weeks before the end of the regular season, with around a five-month recovery time touted.
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One of the best forwards in the competition, Murray's absence has been a massive blow for the Bunnies, with the side clearly missing his leadership through the middle in recent weeks.
But the hope of Murray's late season return to potentially help secure a finals berth is now all but over after the 27-year-old reportedly had to go under the knife again last week due to an infection on his operated foot.
Murray sparked concerns about another injury, with a vague Instagram story of him in a hospital bed over the Easter long weekend.
And on Monday, 'NRL Physio' Brien Seeney revealed on The Magic Sponge podcast that the Souths forward had an infection in his troublesome foot that was so bad that it required another procedure, setting his recovery back to square one.
'He's had an infection. A pretty bad one where he's had to go back into hospital and go under again,' Seeney said on Monday night.
'So he went in for a procedure, the details of that haven't been released yet, but I was speaking to an orthopaedic surgeon this afternoon and the fact he's back in plaster means the infection must have been quite significant and also quite deep as well.
'So there's even a risk that they had to fix up some things and potentially even do the repair again. It just starts Cam Murray's recovery all over again. There was a minor chance he could come back at 5 months, which is between Round 22 and Round 27 but this just completely rules it out now. He's definitely not coming back this year.
' … From a footy perspective, I'm even concerned about how his performance will be next year.'
However, the year off may not be all bad news for Murray, with former representative forward Willie Mason previously stating it actually can prolong a player's career due to them being able to rest other injury niggles.
'He has a year off in the game and sometimes that can prolong your career at the end,' Mason said on his Levels podcast earlier this year.
'If he misses the whole of 2025, all he does is rehab and work on all his other injuries; he can fix everything like that and come back next year and start fresh.
'You miss a whole year of getting hit – it's the contact and everything like that. He's not a big man; he is giving away 10 or 20 kilos in the middle, and he does not shirk it at all.'