Nathan Cleary has taken a significant step towards playing in Sunday's NRL preliminary final, ditching his moon boot and pulling on a pair of teal adidas football boots to make a surprise appearance at Penrith Panthers training on Tuesday afternoon.
The sight of the game's best halfback moving freely at Panthers HQ under cool, cloudy skies will come as a major relief to the Penrith camp — and a cause for serious concern among Newcastle Knights supporters, who will be hoping the superstar No. 7 is unable to take the field this weekend.
What Cleary did at training
Cleary's session was measured and carefully managed, but encouraging nonetheless. He spent time stretching and working through visualisation drills at one end of the ground, used a stepper to activate the muscles in his legs, and eventually joined his teammates for a light run.
The session stopped well short of full training, reflecting the caution Penrith's medical staff are applying to his recovery. Cleary suffered a "stress-related bone issue" in his right foot during the second half of the qualifying final victory over the Sydney Roosters, with the key concern being the risk of a micro fracture developing into something more serious under further strain.
The Panthers' medical team has been working intensively on Cleary throughout the week, employing a hyperbaric chamber, a bone stimulation machine, icing and light physiotherapy. Those same staff notably returned co-captain Isaah Yeo to the field in just four weeks after he suffered a ruptured pectoral muscle — a feat that underscored the club's elite approach to player recovery.
Teammates confident Cleary will play
Yeo himself expressed strong confidence that his fellow captain would be ready to go on Sunday. "He would have been sore if we needed to play last weekend, but it's settled down a bit, and hopefully, it's all systems go," Yeo said on Tuesday. "I'm confident he'll be named and ready to go."
Cleary has indeed been named at halfback for the preliminary final, with Blaize Talagi retained in the centres and Yeo named to start at lock. Paul Alamoti remains absent with a hamstring complaint.
Playmaker Jack Cogger, named in the No. 14 jersey with Jack Cole at five-eighth, also backed Cleary to feature while acknowledging the team is prepared for every contingency. "I've shown throughout the year when [Cleary] has been involved in Origin or other things that I'll be there, and whether that's in the first minute or 70th minute, I'll try to make it as seamless as possible for the team," Cogger said.
"But he'll be there. You just have to cover all your bases all the time. You don't want to carry an injury into a game, but things happen in footy, and you have to be prepared for it all the time."
What it means for the Knights clash
While it was always considered unlikely that Cleary would be ruled out entirely, Tuesday's training images provide the clearest indication yet that Penrith's talisman is on track to play. His ability to move freely and complete even a modified session is a meaningful marker of progress given the nature of the injury.
The Panthers had already demonstrated their capacity to perform without him — including a hard-fought finals win over the Roosters in which Cleary was impacted by the foot issue — but the prospect of having him fully available for a preliminary final against Newcastle represents a formidable prospect for any opponent.
Elsewhere in the finals picture, the Roosters have named Sam Walker at halfback despite an ankle complaint, retaining Billy Smith in the centres, with Hugo Savala listed in the No. 18 jersey ahead of Friday night's first preliminary final against the Dolphins at Suncorp Stadium.
