He may be recovering from a devastating injury, but Gold Coast Titans dummy-half Aaron Booth is certainly keeping busy around the club as he slowly builds himself back to NRL shape.
Booth suffered the horrific injury, damaging multiple knee ligaments, during the Titans' Round 21 clash against Melbourne, but his prolonged recovery period has been jam-packed with a number of other roles, including studying human biology and assisting with club-organised events.
But Booth is still collecting more roles, recently stepping into a junior coaching position.
โI'm just going to help out with some of the juniors (and) dive into a little bit of coaching,โ Booth told NRL.com.
โI've jumped on board with the Burleigh Bears Auswide Bank Mel Meninga Cup team (under-18s) and am going to follow them for the season, which starts up in a few weeks.
โIt's exciting for me, diving into a different area of the game.
โI feel like it will help my footy as well when I'm coming back, looking at the game from a different point of view.
โI'm also just helping organize a few events around our team and get everyone together outside of footy, getting families involved. I will be busier than ever.
โEveryone has said โI'll give you things to doโ, but I've taken on a whole heap and I think I'm going to be busier than I was before, thinking I'd have more time without footy.
โBut it's good. Obviously, I won't be playing on weekends, so I want to fill my time. There are good things coming.โ
Booth has experienced plenty of hardship since making his debut for Melbourne back in the 2020 season, having regularly been cruelled by injuries and subsequently restricted to just 10 first grade games since then.
At the start of this year he was primed to secure the club's No.9 jersey, only for multiple injuries to get in the way. After an arduous recovery he made his return in Round 18, but played just three more games before injury found him again.
Though the club has signed Sam Verrills for the starting hooker role moving forward, Booth still has his eyes set on an NRL return.
Booth's trajectory has also given him a unique appreciation for the problems that could be created by further delays in the CBA negotiations, while also declaring his appreciation for everything the Titans have done.
โEveryone thinks that footy players are secure and in a good position, financially secure and all of that, but that's not always the case, especially with this situation.
โI was off-contract and if the club didn't look after me then I'm out on my own, given what's in place at the moment (the lack of CBA).
โThe RLPA is there, they reached out straight away which is amazing. The support I've had, and the club gave me security pretty early, I'm definitely one of the lucky ones.
โI've got medical costs, I was unable to work, I wouldn't have been able to find work given I couldn't walk for the last 12 weeks. If someone is in that position and wasn't lucky enough to get the contract, it'd be unbelievable stress.โ
