The Warriors' Nathaniel Roache has been on a slow path to recovery. Photo / Photosport
The Warriors' Nathaniel Roache has been on a slow path to recovery. Photo / Photosport
Young Warriors hooker Nathaniel Roache is on the slow path to recovery following surgery on a season ending back injury.
The 22-year-old is used to darting out of dummyhalf and catching the opposition defence napping but has only recently got back on his feet after being bedridden over the pastthree months.
The Warriors 2016 Rookie of the Year made nine appearances last year behind starting hooker Issac Luke, but suffered his latest setback in February, after returning from surgery on a ruptured Achilles that ended his 2017 campaign last August.
It's been a lonely time for the talented No 9, with a walk to the letterbox the highlight of his day, but he hopes to begin jogging later this month and has his sights set on being fully fit for the start of pre-season training in November.
"I'm about three months post-surgery now and still only just going into the club to walk really," Roache told Radio Sport.
"My understanding is it was a bulged disc, my L5 disc was bulging and hitting my sciatic nerve.
"It was causing a lot of problems down that side so they've scraped off some of that disc and put it back in, so it's going to take a while to come right.
"There's still a bit of pain in there but I think that will go hopefully in the next few months. Now it's just about being patient and doing all the little stuff."
Meanwhile, sidelined second-rower Leivaha Pulu hopes to be back on the field in five weeks as he continues his recovery from a foot injury that has kept him out of action since mid-April.
The 28-year-old made six appearances earlier this season and the Warriors have missed his dynamic running and hard tackling on the left-edge since he went down in the side's first defeat of the season against Brisbane in April.
"I got a Lisfranc injury, a bit of a sprain in the muscle and a broken bone in my foot," Pulu explained.
"I just came out of the cast two weeks ago and am slowly recovering.
"It happened against the Broncos, my tackle technique wasn't right and I just let the fella come through and someone landed on my leg. My toes just went the other way and I just heard a massive click.
"I was just lucky that I only got 10 to 12 weeks off, hopefully."
The Warriors go into this week's bye occupying fifth spot on the NRL ladder, with an eight and four record after 12 rounds.
Pulu is confident the Stephen Kearney coached side can bounce back from last week's 30-10 home defeat to South Sydney when they meet Manly in Christchurch on June 9.
"We have to be more consistent," he said. "We just have to go into this bye week and have a good rest and a good think about our next job against Manly and go from there."
