{"id":446554,"date":"2025-04-10T23:18:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T23:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=446554"},"modified":"2025-04-11T01:13:04","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T01:13:04","slug":"why-roll-the-dice-chooks-warned-against-walker-gamble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=446554","title":{"rendered":"'Why roll the dice?': Chooks warned against Walker 'gamble'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Johns<\/a> has urged the Roosters<\/a> to err on the side of caution when it comes to Sam Walker<\/a>'s return from injury.<\/p>\n

Having done his ACL in the club's round 26 loss to the Raiders<\/a> last season, the tricolours' starting half is expected to miss much of this season recovering.<\/p>\n

But Johns suggested the Roosters shouldn't take any risks upon his return, and give him the rest of the year off if they find themselves out of finals contention.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

"If he's back in say round 18 or 20, (and if the) Roosters are no chance of making the eight … you wouldn't risk it, would you," he said on Nine's Freddy and the Eighth.<\/em><\/p>\n

"He's too much of an investment. There's no halfbacks out there, and god forbid he plays one game and does his knee again."<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Johns knows first hand the pitfalls of ACL injuries. The Knights legend tore his in 2004 and spent 10 months on the sidelines.<\/p>\n

But on his return, he said it "just wasn't right" for another two months, taking the total recovery time to a year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He revealed Walker had undergone a patella graft, which results in a stronger repair, but the recovery time can be longer.<\/p>\n

Johns said given the club's investment in the 22-year-old and his age, the Roosters would be better off not playing him to give him all the extra time he can get to recover.<\/p>\n

"If there's six weeks to go and you could not make the semi-finals, why roll the dice? Why gamble it?," he posed.<\/p>\n

"If he doesn't play, then he has another six months before he plays again. You've gotta look at risk\/reward."<\/p>\n

\"Do<\/p>\n

Brad Fittler said a consistent halves paring is the key to a winning side.<\/p>\n

"You've seen how important halves are – the teams who are winning have got halves who are consistent, who are there playing every week," he said.<\/p>\n

"(Walker) has never had that time. He's had injuries before. You look at the size of him, he could really get away and develop and train and get strong."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew Johns has urged the Roosters to err on the side of caution when it comes to Sam Walker's return from injury. Having done his […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":443871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446554"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=446554"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":446563,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446554\/revisions\/446563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/443871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=446554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=446554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=446554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}