Sam Burgess
Sam Burgess, the South Sydney and England forward, is expected to be forced to call time on his rugby league career as a result of an ongoing shoulder injury that blighted his 2019 NRL season.
The 30-year-old’s club is set to confirm his retirement on Wednesday afternoon.
Burgess, whose contract with the Rabbitohs runs until 2022, battled shoulder injuries all last season but it is a subsequent infection that is reportedly the cause of the decision to hang up his boots.
The loss of such a key player will be a major blow to the Rabbitohs, who also lost Greg Inglis prematurely this year.
His imminent exit with three years to run on his multi-million dollar deal presents questions about the effect on South Sydney’s salary cap, given his retirement is based on medical grounds.
The Rabbitohs are yet to formally request cap dispensation but it’s believed they soon will be given a new injury stopping Burgess playing again.
The fact he is retiring before the beginning of the next rugby league year on November 1 could mean his entire wages are stricken from the 2020 cap if their application is successful.
Burgess will go down as one of the NRL’s great forwards.
He has played 182 games for the club since arriving in 2010, and was the Clive Churchill medallist in their drought-breaking 2014 grand final success – after playing the majority of the game with a fractured cheekbone sustained in the opening moments.
Tough and rugged in the middle, he has been the leader of the Rabbitohs’ forward pack since his NRL debut in 2010.
He also played 88 games for Bradford in the English Super League, and represented England at the 2015 Rugby World Cup during a brief switch to the 15-man code.
Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga said Burgess was up there with some of the best Englishmen to have played in the NRL. “In my time he is certainly No 1 or No 2,” Meninga said.
“I think Ellery Hanley was probably in that space as well. But in my time, he has done a fantastic job for England and paved the way for more Englishman to come out. He’s been a great pioneer for them.”
Meninga’s comments come after NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg on Tuesday described the 30-year-old Burgess as an ornament of the game, as speculation over the Souths star’s future mounted.
“He’s the sort of player people want to watch,” Greenberg said. “He’s the sort of player I like to watch… He’s been a great competitor in our game, he’s one of the best.”
His retirement will come just months after Inglis had to call time on his career, and leaves brother Tom as the only remaining Burgess at Souths with George returning to Super League.
