Hampton wants to stay home in north
BEN Hampton is determined to stay in North Queensland.
After a tough second half of the season on the sidelines, the backline utility has entered contract negotiations with the Cowboys as he aims to extend his stay at the club into 2020.
Hampton has not taken the field since the Cowboys’ win over Parramatta back in Round 10, when he ruptured his bicep in the opening set of the game.
He has had to watch helplessly as the Cowboys slipped to a five-game losing streak and 14th place on the NRL ladder.
“I hate getting a tiny niggle that keeps me out of one training session let alone 13 weeks of footy. It is one of those things with the game, you are going to get injured, it is a pretty tough sport,” he said.
“It has been a bit of a rough year, not only for myself but for the whole club. We have had some tough injuries and it just really hasn’t been our year.
“We have got a couple of games to go and hopefully we can finish off on a good note with a couple of good games.”
While he has been back on the training paddock for the past two months, Hampton said there was no reason to risk his arm by making a return in the final three weeks of the season.
Earlier this year Roosters dummyhalf Jake Friend made an early return from a bicep injury, only to sustain another rupture to the same bicep in his return clash.
Ironically, that came against the Cowboys at Gosford.
“I won’t be risking my arm at all. To go on break and be injured it is not a good thing. I will have to rehab the whole thing again. I am trying to get back still, and I will definitely be pushing for some sort of play,” he said.
“If I got my arm back to a certain point that I was happy with and the coaching staff and physios were happy with then I probably would. But we are not at that stage, we have still got a couple of weeks to go.”
The long term injury has thrown a spanner in the works for Hampton’s contract negotiations at the club as his current deal is set to expire at the end of this season.
But it has not deterred the Mareeba product from wanting to stay in North Queensland, the place he considers home.
“It is home. Even when I was in Melbourne, I loved Melbourne, but every chance I got I would be back up to North Queensland. I couldn’t wait to come to this club one day, following the Cowboys as a kid,” he said.
“If I can stay here for the rest of my career I will be doing it. I think we are close to getting something done which I am happy about.
“It can be a little tougher not being able to play while you are going through negotiations. But the club has been very good with me and we are working to get something done that both parties are happy with. I don’t think we are too far off at all.”