Mr Tenacious: How Gold Coast Titans star Kieran Foran pushed through the pain to chalk up 300 games in the NRL

Gold Coast Titans star Kieran Foran believes there is an even bigger milestone than his 300th NRL game against St George Illawarra in Wollongong on Sunday.

Simply put, that’s the 100 games he’s played since suffering what many believed would be a career-ending shoulder injury while playing for New Zealand in 2019.

The scrum-half’s journey to his landmark match on Sunday is perhaps the most remarkable of the 52 other men to have achieved the feat in the NRL.

One of the NRL’s most solid midfielders on his debut in 2009, he won a championship as a 21-year-old at Manly and endured highly publicised personal problems at Parramatta.

For years, Foran’s career seemed on the verge of a premature end, before what many thought would be his final setback in 2019.

“It’s something I’m very grateful and proud of,” Foran said.

‘It’s just about keeping fighting. If this could serve as an example or message to anyone, it would be that good things can come from keeping fighting.

“If you’re willing to keep going when things don’t go your way and you find yourself in a tough situation, you can get through it. My career has been a testament to that.”

The New Zealand international won an NRL championship with the Sea Eagles in 2011 before suffering personal dramas while in the Eels squad (pictured)

Perhaps what makes Foran’s journey to 300 games more remarkable is that on more than one occasion midway through his career there have been reports of a medical withdrawal.

They first emerged at Canterbury in 2018 when Foran suffered shoulder, hamstring, back and toe injuries, and re-emerged again the following year after dislocating his shoulder while playing for New Zealand.

Foran has said he never had any concrete conversations about retiring early, but he is the first to admit he privately had doubts about whether he could return from his dislocated shoulder in 2019.

“A lot of the initial feedback after those two major surgeries was that the shoulder was going to be pretty damaged,” Foran said.

“They weren’t sure how I was going to carry on playing. They were saying, ‘We’re not really sure if the shoulder is going to be able to withstand the rigours of the NRL any longer.'”

‘There were times when I would privately come home from training after the fourth or fifth surgery and the noise would get louder and louder and I would have moments of doubt.

‘I got to 26, 27 or 28 and my body broke down. From sheer wear and tear and from not having taken care of it as I should have in the early stages of my career.

‘I would say to my wife: ‘Is it worth it to keep going if I’m not playing the football I want to play? Will my body ever get back to where I need it to be?’

Foran credits his wife Karina for providing him with much-needed life balance away from the rigours of the NRL.

Foran has done that and more.

And, surprisingly, he seems further from the end in his 300th match than when he played his 200th game four years ago.

The playmaker has re-signed for 2025 and sees no reason why he cannot continue beyond that with Des Hasler on the Gold Coast.

He is now playing smarter than he was five years ago, making the most of the lifeline handed to him by Hasler at Manly in late 2020.

Foran is also able to train more now than he did five years ago, after realising that a conservative approach to his workload was causing some of the problems.

This year has also been the 34-year-old’s best in almost a decade, creating more tries than in any season since he first left Manly in late 2015.

“You start learning to play with more time and wisdom. It has allowed me to take better care of myself,” says Foran.

‘I am a man and a player completely changed through life and football experiences.

“When I compare myself to back then, I feel like I’m a much more complete player now than I was in game 100.”