Benji shoulders heavy load all the way to top
THE man who helped re-put Marshall back together says he has “defied” medical logic to play on 13 years after careerthreatening shoulder issues.
As Marshall approaches what is likely his final game on Sunday, his career almost ended prematurely. Five shoulder operations – including four on his right side – before his 24th birthday.
Donald Kuah – who was the long-term Tigers doctor – said Marshall “had been warned about longer term impacts” of each operation.
He recalled crisis meetings which included Marshall and Tigers coach Tim Sheens where the realisation of Marshall’s predicament was laidbare.
“There was a pre-dispossession for him with his shoulders,” Kuah said. “It wasn’t just one operation. It wasn’t just one shoulder. It was recurrences of it.
“It’s understanding physically and psychologically what you have to overcome to get through those challenges.
“I know there were issues with him being tackle shy. I was fearful for his career but I wasn’t certainly at the stage where there was no way he could recover.
“I haven’t seen shoulders as bad on someone who has gone on to play for so long at the professional level. “Each time it happened your heart dropped.
The surgeon would always say if it gets broke you can fix it again and again.”
That surgeon was Des Booker who Marshall now jokes with declaring he paid all of the professor’s bills during his horror run of injuries.
Booker said he was nervous watching Marshall until about 2010. By then, he felt, he had overcome any potential problem.
“A lot of people who would have had these injuries would have thought ‘bugger it’ and walked away,” Booker said. “Retirement was never discussed.’’