NRL: Price says injury put career in danger

Steve Price says he is fine to play on, despite his recent throat injury.

Warriors captain Steve Price said he was close to suffering serious damage that threatened to end his career when he took a knock to the throat against Manly last month.

He played on in that win and in the subsequent loss to Brisbane and, back training yesterday, said he was often breathless during that game because of narrowing of his airways.

A specialist told him there was no way he would be allowed to play again until the injury cleared. "The doctor said it was like a car crash."

He got the all-clear on Wednesday for the match against the Roosters at Mt Smart on Sunday and had already put himself under pressure to test it. "There's no risk, the injury is as good as it can be."

Were he not an NRL player he would have surgery. That will wait until his career is over. The only problem now is that the medics don't know what his throat looked like in the first place as no scans were kept after he was injured in the same spot while at the Bulldogs in 2002.

Price was confident the injury would not be targeted by opposition players and he was not concerned about taking another knock. "It's part and parcel of our game, shoulders and elbows and stuff happens accidentally all the time."

The skipper said he was proud of his team's effort while he was on the sideline watching two losses to Souths and Newcastle. He felt they were not doing too much wrong and weren't far away from a return to winning.

"We're not making the most of our opportunities. The defence has improved, we can probably get a bit better with the footy. We're coming home strong so the side is pretty fit."

The game was faster and he had noticed some players were less effective and having less impact as a result.

The teams whose players had adjusted to the increased speed of the play-the-ball under the two-ref system were winning.

"The three games I've played in are the fastest I've played in for a while. If you get [a run of] possession you score a few points because the other team is tiring."

Manu Vatuvei ran with the side yesterday and declared himself fully fit for a return from a knee injury.