Returning Canberra Raiders winger and centre Nick Cotric has revealed how close he came to missing an entire year of football.
Cotric went in for shoulder surgery mid way through his solitary season with the Canterbury Bulldogs, bringing his time at the club to an end.
While the one-time New South Wales State of Origin representative had years to run on his contract with the Bulldogs, a move has been made for him to return to the Raiders, freeing up the Bulldogs' salary cap and allowing Bailey Simonsson to make the most to the backline-depleted Parramatta Eels.
Cotric is gunning to be fit for Round 1 of the new season, but revealed it was a foot injury, rather than that of his shoulder which originally ruled him out, and could have forced him into 12 months on the sidelines.
Cotric told The Canberra Times that he snapped a ligament at training.
"I snapped the ligament, I did it wrestling and they said if I had surgery I'd be out for 12 months," Cotric told the publication.
"You don't want to have surgery under your foot because you're always using it. Some doctors were just saying don't have it because it can just heal itself and I think that was the best option, so I was lucky I didn't get surgery, I rested that out.
"While I was resting my toe I told them I had a shoulder problem, so they checked my shoulder and I'd torn my labrum so I had to go in and get surgery on my shoulder. I thought that'd be a fairly good opportunity to get the shoulder done so I got that done at the same time.
"All these injuries were from training they weren't even on the field, it was a bit annoying."
Cotric is likely to walk back into the Raiders' top 17, although whether at centre or on the wing remains to be seen.
