Ramsey made his NRL comeback after being told to never play rugby league again

Four years ago, the medical verdict on the former Dragons winger Cody Ramsey was as final as it was devastating.

His large bowel was gone, and a stoma bag had become part of daily life.

Specialist after specialist would tell him the same thing: that his rugby career was over.

Ramsey didn't believe them, and on Saturday night, he proved why.

Pressed into action by Mark Nawaqanitawase's ankle injury, Ramsey peeled off the Roosters bench wearing jersey 18 and ran for 77 metres in a chaotic 38-24 win over the Broncos.

It was his first NRL appearance since 2022.

Fox League's Cooper Cronk, watching on, felt the weight of the moment immediately.

"It is a helter skelter game, and it's all about performance and everything, but sometimes there are emotions that sits below it," he said during the broadcast.

"Cody Ramsey played the first game in a long, long time. Jersey number 18.

"How proud is it a moment for you as a coach, but give us a bit of insight to his challenges, and he just turned up tonight."

Roosters coach Trent Robinson, a man not easily given to sentimentality, didn't hide his admiration.

"He walked in back in November, Cody and I think his issues with his gut and the operations that he's had and the time that he's spent out," Robinson said in the post-match press conference.

"And then, since that day, he's brought so much energy to our group. He's such a good man.

"He's always on top of the ground. He's always asking how to improve, and he's been ready to play in NRL for about six weeks.

"The way that he's trained against us. I wish we could have gone through the debut and the prep there, and you don't always get that choice, but we're going to really celebrate him playing."

When Ramsey spoke after the game on the Fox League broadcast, his voice barely held together.

"It's been crazy, and I didn't do it alone, that's for sure,” Ramsey said.

“Even the first week that I come to the Roosters, they sat me down with a dietitian and just changed my life within one week, so it's just so special what they've done for me.

“And on the cusp of that, I've done so much with the Dragons, too. They've done so much for me, and to get the opportunity to play for such a prestigious club.

"I'm just so stoked and just for Robbo just to have the belief that if someone goes down for me to go into that back five, it's just it's really exciting."

What Ramsey endured to get that moment defies easy description.

Ulcerative colitis had ravaged his body from the inside out, and by the time it was diagnosed in 2022, the damage was irreversible.

"Ulcerative Colitis is large bowel disease, and it targets your large intestine,” Ramsey explained.

“And when we found my diagnosis, it was pretty much burnt bread (dead) the whole bowel, so I had my whole large bowel removed, and it left me with a stump, and it's connected to your bottom.

“I had a stoma for six months, and that's a bag. I had a stoma reversal, that's where they connect your small bowel to your large bowel, and I guess it's gravity-fed by food, so I had to reintroduce every food I've ever eaten back into my new stomach.

"Too much water and you have to balance out your food with your water, and I guess I'm not really on any medication, it's all natural, and just figuring out what I need to eat."

He paused before adding the line that stopped everyone cold.

"But it's an awful disease, and it happens to 1 in 100 people, but when I found it in 2022, it was irreversible, and we kind of just had to deal with the challenges from there," he stated.

"So I guess that you can see why they said not to come back, but it's really lucky I didn't believe them."

When Ramsey arrived at the Roosters, he weighed just 77 kilograms, a shell of an NRL footballer.

What followed was a quiet, methodical rebuilding of a human being, not just an athlete, and he showed his gratitude after the victory on Saturday night.

"Honestly, it means the world," Ramsey said.

“From a week before I even got here, the things that they've done for me, and it wasn't even about putting on weight because I was about 77 kilos when I did come to the Roosters, and it wasn't about putting on weight, it was about just being me and being confident, and there is an aura about the club that they give you.

"It's just about backing myself and then the weight did come with everything the people that they had around me, the dietitians and then I got to that 86 kilo mark, which is I feel is right for me."

It will be a moment that nobody in that stadium will forget.