Eighteen months after being told he may never run again, let alone play rugby league, Ryley Mackay will soon embark on a new challenge.
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The robust centre has signed with the Bears for the 2024 season, ending a five-year association with Kootingal-Moonbi in which he developed into one of the competition's best players while morphing physically.
That devotion to the body proved key after the 27-year-old suffered a serious knee injury playing against the Tigers in Manilla in round three of 2022.
He said he "shattered" the patella in his right knee. Screws and wires were inserted in the knee, and doctors told him that he would be "lucky to even run again", he said.
But a year after sustaining the injury, Mackay was back in action.
He said the knee had "come along pretty good", although he hoped moving to Norths would result in him recapturing his pre-injury form.
"Just performing at my best," he said of his objective for the coming season.
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Leaving the Roosters was "pretty hard", the bricklayer said, adding: "They obviously didn't want to let me go.
"They were messaging me, pretty much, every week to see what I was doing."
The Peel High alumnus thanked former Roosters coach Geoff Sharpe for being instrumental in his rugby league development, as he got more involved in games and more "physical".
Watching Mackay's progress next season will be his partner, Taylah Booby, and his six-year-old son, Korbyn.
Becoming a parent was "challenging", he said, and involved him changing his lifestyle so he was a "role model" to his son.
"It's made me mature," he said of parenthood, adding: "I guess everyone's unsure of how they're gonna parent and stuff. It's a pretty hard thing, a big thing for everyone."
Joining the reigning eight-time premiers is also a big thing for this hard-running, hard-hitting back.
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