Panthers coach Ivan Cleary has confirmed star halfback Nathan Cleary will return from his latest hamstring issue to face the Bulldogs in round 10. The halfback was pulled from the side to face South Sydney just a day out from Thursday night’s match despite making it through their captains run.
Cleary appeared to pull up fine after a tough-fought 26-20 win in round eight and looked a certainty to play in round nine. But in a shock to the NRL world, the Penrith coach opted for Brad Schneider to lead his team at No.7 against the bottom-placed Rabbitohs on Thursday night.
The reigning premiers decided to take a cautious approach to Cleary’s fitness, after he reportedly felt some tightness in his hamstring after the round-eight away game against North Queensland. The Panthers staff ultimately decided the five-day turnaround was too risky and named Schneider instead
Cleary’s understudy during his initial injury lay-off, Schneider, was again instrumental in the Panthers’ 42-12 win against Souths. And speaking after the match Cleary was full of praise for the halfback who he admits was unfairly thrown in at the last minute.
That’s on me (pulling Nathan Cleary last minute), we should’ve made that call earlier,” Cleary said. “We wanted to see how (Cleary) would go yesterday, hoping he’d get through it without any dramas.
“In the end, it just seemed to be too much risk. Brad came in and had done zero reps this week, or the week before, so I think he did pretty well.” When asked if the Panthers star would play in round 10, the Penrith coach simply replied: “Yes”.
