Grand Final hero Stevie Ward came close to quitting rugby league

Leeds forward Stevie Ward says he contemplated retiring from the game before making a miraculous recovery from a dislocated shoulder and helping his team to Grand Final glory.

The 23-year-old second-rower made 40 tackles and played the full 80 minutes of the Rhinos’ 24-6 victory over Castleford in Saturday’s Super League title decider at Old Trafford.

Yet seven days earlier, as he lay in excruciating pain on his hospital bed, he wondered if he had played his last match.

Ward was forced to miss Leeds’ 2015 Grand Final win over Wigan with a serious knee injury and he feared the worst after dislocating his shoulder during his club’s semi-final win over Hull just over a week ago.

“There were moments in the early hours of Saturday morning when I was giving in,” he said. “I was giving in and moving on. I didn’t think I could go through another process, coming back from injury and missing a final.

“To have my shoulder still out at 9am on Saturday morning in that pain – morphine wasn’t touching it – I probably couldn’t think straight.

“On Sunday night I had it in a sling. I got up and tried to move it around and I thought ‘there’s a week in this to get back’.

“I knew I had to make the decision then on the Sunday. I picked my belief up and made the decision that I’d play and then everything came in around that. That mindset helped me pick it up this week to help play in a Grand Final and put a performance in.

“I knew from Monday I’d play. Obviously I had to prove my fitness and get in the team but I wasn’t missing it.

“To be in this position right now, going from the complete opposite end of the spectrum in rugby league in a week, is surreal. It’s a bit of a shock. The top feels so much better from the bottom.”

Ward admits he was wary of the injury during Saturday’s game and at one point was seen holding his shoulder in obvious discomfort.

“I landed on it a bit funny and it didn’t like it,” he said. “I was a bit wary of it the whole game.”

Ward is now hoping he has not suffered further damage, particularly with England’s World Cup squad due to be named on Monday, but he insists it was a risk worth taking and reveals the experience is nothing new.

“There’s always a danger of making it worse and a danger of me going out with a bad left shoulder and doing my right knee,” he said.

“It’s sore now. I couldn’t really feel it at the end of the game but it’s starting to pick up now.

“I’ve played all my life with sore shoulders. I can remember playing bulldogs at school at 11 years old and dislocating my AC joint.

“Two weeks later I put pads on and put bubble wrap over my left shoulder and ended up playing for Churwell Chiefs against Fev Lions so this is just another episode.”

Such bravery makes Ward a stand-out candidate to take over the captaincy from Danny McGuire, who tipped him as his potential successor after he played his last match for the club on Saturday.