Huddersfield Giants star Simon Finnigan has something to celebrate

May 22 2010 by Chris Roberts, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

SIMON FINNIGAN is now able to focus on some bright lights at the end of a very long and dark tunnel.

Last Wednesday, the 28-year-old Giants back-row forward was in the mood to celebrate after finally being given the all clear by his specialist in London to resume his playing career.

The Ireland World Cup star was confident the news would be positive and he would be given a clean bill of health after undergoing neck and shoulder surgery at the end of last season.

But it was still music to his ears when the main man told him he didn’t want to see him again.

As a result, he was back training with the full first-team squad towards the following day and has now completed a full week of intensive training for the first time in nine months.

To say he’s happy is an understatement.

“It’s been a very, very long nine months, and I can now finally say it’s over,” said the former Bradford Bulls ace.

“Obviously, the biggest thing of all will be to play a competitive game again, but the feeling I got when I joined up with the first-team squad for training last week was absolutely fantastic.

“It was one of the biggest steps I’d taken during that nine months and was the sign that things were now falling back into place.

“There were times during my time in rehab that I did seriously wonder if it would all be worth it.

“I was suffering severe headaches after I’d undergone surgery and then I found the going pretty tough around Christmas time. That was when I started wondering whether I should just jack it in and stay at home with the family.

“Now I’m back training with the boys, I’m glad I didn’t.”

And Finnigan has admitted rehab chief Greg Brown played a massive part in keeping him going during the hardest of times.