Gold Coast Titans five-eighth Kieran Foran has revealed he would need surgery or eight weeks for his foot injury to completely heal.
The Titans rested Foran for a pair of games in between byes during early June, with the veteran missing a 46-28 loss to the South Sydney Rabbitohs, and a 28-12 win over the Wests Tigers before returning.
It gave Foran a month off as he aimed to get himself to a playable state after originally suffering a ruptured ligament in his plantar plate during Round 9 against the Manly Sea Eagles at Brookvale.
The plantar plate is a thick ligament in the foot that conects the toes, and while things still aren't perfect for the key Titan, it's now hoped he will be able to make it through the season without another break, even though the Titans have exhausted all of their byes.
Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald, Foran revealed he would need eight weeks off or surgery to fix the injury entirely, but the happy medium of four weeks off has allowed him to train again in between games, as well as get through games without the need to have pain killers.
โPrior to the time off I wasn't able to train at all, I was just needling it for games and in the break we got it to a point where I'm able to get through the training sessions โ not all of it, but I can do far more than what I was doing," Foran told The Sydney Morning Herald.
โI'm able to tolerate the pain through games without actually needling it. It's not 100 per cent, but I can get through a game of footy with it โ albeit limping at times, but I can put it out of my head.
โFor it to completely heal up I would have had either surgery or eight weeks off in a boot. That's just too long, so we found a happy medium.โ
Foran will be vital for the Titans during the run home as the side, under interim coach Jim Lenihan, attempt to qualify for the finals. Currently sitting in 10th spot ahead of Sunday's clash with the Dolphins, they are just two points out of the top eight with 7 wins from their 15 games.
Foran, who has 274 first-grade games under his belt and a year to run on his contract at Robina, has added 3 try assists, 7 line break assists, 4 offloads and 54 metres per game in his 12 appearances this year.
