Johnathan Thurston Out For NRL Season

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Johnathan Thurston's NRL season is over after being told he requires surgery on his injured right shoulder.

The injury blow also means Thurston's 37-game Queensland State of Origin career is over, with the North Queensland playmaker retiring from representative football at the end of the year.

The 34-year-old re-injured his right shoulder in Queensland's 18-16 State of Origin victory over NSW on Wednesday night, when he made a tackle on Blues forward Tyson Frizell.

"Given it was already an injured shoulder, the club and the player decided he had to undergo surgery immediately, effectively ending his season for 2013," Cowboys coach Paul Green said. Listen to the full press conference at the bottom of the page. 

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Thurston said he had originally hoped the injury was just a cork, before scans on Thursday revealed the worst.

"The news isn't good," Thurston said.

"And the best decision for myself and the club is to get the op done.

"I thought I might have been able to pump one or two more games out.

"But the medical advice I've been given is that if I wanted to live a normal life after football, then I had to have the surgery."

A six-month recovery period will also dash Thurston's hopes of finishing his representative career in the end-of-season home World Cup.

But the Maroons and Kangaroos veteran added he would have no second thoughts on his decision to retire from representative football.

"It's a decision that I've made," he said.

"I wanted to finish on a high this year with representative football. I'm comfortable with that decision I've made to retire from rep football." Listen to the full press conference below. 

Johnathan Thurston Press Conference

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23 June 2017




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