NRL: Josh Mansour relying on frozen corpse tendon to aid knee injury

Australia's Josh Mansour during the Four Nations match between the Australian Kangaroos and Scotland. Photo / Getty Images

Penrith's Josh Mansour is relying on a frozen tendon taken from a corpse to help overcome a knee injury and return to action as early as May.

The winger was given three options to repair the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, which he ruptured during a freak accident while training with the Kangaroos in November.

Mansour chose an allograft, a rare procedure which involves taking the tendon from a deceased donor and transplanting it into his own knee.

"Option one was to take part of my hamstring tendon and replace my ACL with that," Mansour told The Saturday Telegraph.

"Option two was to use part of my patella tendon in my left knee.

"And option three was the allograft, which is basically using a frozen tendon from a donor.

"At the time I didn't know what to do.

"I had a lot of medical advice from the Australian medical team, our medical team here (at Penrith), and my surgeon (professor Justin Roe).

"I thought if I pick the hamstring (an autograft), there would have to be rehab on that, and I could lose some speed, while it was the same thing with the patella.

"My injury is similar to Dean Whare's, I asked him how he's feeling and he reckons he's flying, he's looking good and back in full training.

"That gave me a lot more confidence.

"But it is crazy. Even now when I talk about the donor it feels weird. I'm also extremely grateful."

Mansour did not receive any information regarding the identity of the deceased donor.

While several NRL players have undergone allografts over the years, only a few surgeons perform the procedure.

After going under the knife in mid-November, Mansour started some light drills this week, including balancing work.

Mansour could have taken time off after an outstanding year that saw him represent New South Wales and Australia, but he wanted to start the recovery process as soon as he could.

"This type of injury you can't rush," Mansour said.

"They have a timetable for me. This week is 'week three', around week 10 I'll start on the AlterG machine (an anti-gravity treadmill), and by week 12 I should be doing some straight-line running.

"It's a six to nine month injury, and it will all depend on how the rehab and treatment goes, and how confident I am when it is ready.

"But being the person I am, I like to set myself a time, and I'm putting that time to get back around the middle of May or early June. I'm confident I can do that. If you believe in yourself that much, you're halfway there."

Mansour is a huge loss for Penrith, but they have great outside back depth, with Peta Hiku and aforementioned Dean Whare set to return from their own knee injuries, as well as Waqa Blake, Tyrone Peachey, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and new recruit Michael Oldfield.

"It's a good luxury to have. I'd hate to be the coach," Mansour said.