Following his breakout performance against the Canberra Raiders on April 28, Lachlan Croker credited Daly Cherry-Evans with helping him overcome his mental demons and acclimatise to the pressures of the NRL.
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The former Goulburn local is Manly's resident five-eighth, and scored two tries to take the Sea Eagles across the line by four points over his former club.
The result was significant for Croker not only because of the large role he played in the Sea Eagles' win, but because it also marked 366 days since he underwent a knee reconstruction in 2018.
It was the latest in a tortuously long list of injuries that Croker has overcome, and the 22-year-old said his return "couldn't have been scripted any better."
"It makes the last 12 months all worth it. They're the sort of things you dream about, and all those days of waking up and thinking 'I don't know if I should do this anymore, I don't know if I want to do this'.
"Last weekend just made everything worth it."
Cherry-Evans, the Manly skipper and NRL stalwart, has taken Croker under his wing in recent months, which the young man said had a "massive" influence.
"Obviously he's played in a lot of big games and won a lot of big games," Croker said.
"Guys like that, you're only going to get better from.
"As a person, he has a really calming influence on not only myself, but the team, and I probably wouldn't be half the player I was if it wasn't for him. I owe a lot to him, and he knows how much I appreciate it."
The Sea Eagles followed up their victory over the Raiders with a gutsy 18-10 win over the Canterbury Bulldogs on Saturday, in which Croker suffered yet another injury, this time to his hamstring.
The severity of the damage has not yet been made clear, but with Cherry-Evans also injured, the Sea Eagles are now missing two of their key play-makers going into this Friday's clash with the Broncos.
Along with Cherry-Evans, Croker now joins Jorge Tafua, Addin Fonua-Blake, and Tom Trbojevic on the sidelines, and the Sea Eagles will be hoping for quick recoveries as the season continues.
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