Payne Haas completed the Blues team walk this morning wearing a rather conspicuous back brace… except it’s not a back brace. It looks a lot like a heat pack - as pointed out by the NRL Physio. Haas has barely trained all week after getting a cortisone injection to ease a bulging disc he’s been putting up with all year.
And turns out that a cortisone injection takes roughly a week to take effect. If you overextend the muscles in that period after the injection, you can do real damage, apparently. So in summary, Payne Haas - fine, still looking good for man of the match and the Wally Lewis medal. Play on.