Great players don’t have the same career trajectory as everyone else. Their highs are much higher than every one else, and their lows are sometimes not all that low. How great players deal with different parts of their careers can be telling, and they all seem to have different ways of coping with the fact that their best years are behind them.
Think of it from Greg Inglis’ point of view. He came into the game as a young superstar that was pretty much unstoppable. Over the course of his career he was considered an elite player on the wing, in the centers, at five-eighth and at fullback. He was one of the very first players picked for Queensland and Australia. He won premierships at the Melbourne Storm, and then was the centerpiece of a rebuild at the South Sydney Rabbitohs that saw him bring success back to the Pride Of The League. He was as sure a bet as you can find at casinous.
Then, all of a sudden injuries starts to take their toll. The edge he had in athleticism over opponents started to diminish. Soon after he misses almost an entire season and in 2019 Inglis now finds himself on the sidelines to contemplate the end of his incredible career.
Imagine going from the first player picked in an Australian test team to having your club telling you to go and take a break because they can cope without you that quickly. That has to be a huge shock to the system for one of the games greatest ever players.
It is hard to see where Inglis goes from here. Does he rededicate himself to the game 100% at the age of 32, with a knee that many believe is a huge problem for him? Can he take time off mid season and still force his way back into the Rabbitohs site?
The Rabbitohs are considered one of the teams to beat in 2019 according to bestaubettingsites.com. Can they afford to continue their season, work on new combinations and then have to bring Inglis back into what might be a settled side down the track?
Time will tell how this plays out, and hopefully Inglis has a good support team around him. This will either be a small blip at the end of his playing career, or the end of it altogether.
