- Cleary is enjoying a very busy off-season following the Grand Final
- Star was pictured in intimate moments with Mary Fowler
- The couple said goodbye when she returned to England
Panthers fans will be pleased to see premiership-winning hero Nathan Cleary finally emerge from his knee brace after suffering a suspected ligament tear during the NRL grand final.
The superstar halfback injured his knee just nine minutes into the decider when Broncos wrecking ball Payne Haas performed a hip drop tackle on him, for which he has since been fined.
Forced to essentially play the rest of the match on one leg, the playmaker dragged his side back from the brink of disaster and masterminded the greatest comeback in NRL grand final history.
The suspected tear in his posterior cruciate ligament – one of the ligaments that connect the femur to the shin – kept Cleary out of the Kangaroos’ Pacific Championship series.
Last week, Cleary was pictured with new romantic interest and Matildas star Mary Fowler in a Perth park – and still wearing the PCL brace over his injured joint.
Cleary was pictured wearing the knee brace on November 1 as he caught up with Matilda’s star girlfriend Mary Fowler in Perth
The NRL star was spotted wearing the brace again as he strolled through Sydney airport after saying goodbye to Fowler on Friday morning.
On Wednesday, Drink West – the beer brand founded by Cleary and Sydney-based UFC stars Tai Tuivasa and Tyson Pedro – released a series of videos on Instagram showing Cleary finally out of the bracket.
In the video clips – which appear to have been filmed during the production of a commercial for the brewery – Cleary can be seen sitting in the back of a ute, posing with fans and pouring beer at the Drink West brewery.
Physiotherapist Brien Seeney, known on social media as the NRL Physio, believes Cleary most likely suffered a moderate to severe PCL tear.
In a clip on social media, Seeney says Cleary should receive even more praise for his heroics in the grand final and the historic 16-point comeback that will go down in football lore.
“For him to do what he did, especially in the last half hour, but just to play the whole game with that injury and perform the way he did,” Seeney said.
“He should have gone in with that injury and cooled down, and then it will be really painful, it will swell a little bit.
‘Then he will have to go outside. Yeo’s gone, Luai’s gone, all these things we know.
Cleary was still in the brace last Friday when he returned to Sydney from Perth
The superstar halfback played most of the NRL grand final with a knee injury
Cleary had also seriously dislocated the ring finger of his left hand before the preliminary final
“But to do all that with whatever this injury is, and it sounds like a moderate to severe PCL injury, is just…
“It probably won’t get as much fuss as Sam Burgess’ broken face or Cooper Cronk’s broken shoulder blade. But I think it’s a little underrated.”
After the grand final, Cleary also posted a photo on social media of the dislocated finger he suffered on the eve of the preliminary final.
Cleary’s right ring finger was badly injured after being hit by a football in training, but he still played and sent Penrith to beat rivals Melbourne.
The playmaker then taped up the injured finger for the decider against Brisbane, delivering the best final twenty minutes of any player in history.