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Foley had career doubts amid 'scary' concussion

Waratahs and Australia fly-half Bernard Foley

Bernard Foley had concerns that his career may be over during a “scary” struggle with concussion but the Australia fly-half is set to make his Waratahs comeback against Rebels on Friday.

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Foley has missed the first five weeks of the Super Rugby season after taking a blow to the head in a trial match against Highlanders.

The playmaker has gone through the return to play protocols and was named in the starting line-up to take on Tony McGahan’s side at AAMI Park, but spoke of his doubts over whether he would be able to return.

“It is quite a scary injury because blokes can get knocks and not come back from it,” Foley said.

“They can be innocuous or they can be the prone knockout, no-one really knows about this injury. There is no deadline or guidelines to when you are going to be back. I stayed away from Googling it or even watching the movie Concussion.

“I think you have concerns with all that [not being able to return] but you just have to trust the process that you are doing everything in your powers to be right and put yourself in that best position.”

Foley said even the most trivial things left him frustrated during his time on the sidelines.

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He added: “Just little things that you think ‘that doesn’t normally annoy me, why is it today?’

“So you’d wake up every day thinking am I going to be right today?”

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Nickers 30 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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