There was some grave concern for a moment when Brent Tate went down, but after analysis by the All-Stars team doctors, North Queensland Cowboys centre Brent Tate was cleared of any serious injury.
Suffering only a corked knee during the game, although Tate could have returned to the match as a result, both he and the medical staff opted against doing so – instead preferring to take the safe option, and have Tate sit out the rest of the game, to avoid further injury.
Tate, who suffered that horrific knee injury in the 2010 Four Nations final, resulting in a knee reconstruction, said that he was fine, but made the call himself to sit out as a precaution.
“I just didn’t want to go back out there, there was no point risking it,” the 29-year-old said.
“If it had been another game I’d have kept playing but with those sorts of things it’s not worth the risk.
“They said it probably wasn’t worth going back out there and I agreed with them and said ‘yep, that’s the best course of action’, so it was unfortunate and I would have liked to have played a bit more but that’s the way it goes.”
Despite going down with an injury, at no point did Tate believe that it was a re-occurrence of that ACL injury he sustained in the past.
“Not at all. I just wanted to get off, get it looked at and, no, it wasn’t anything like that,” he said.
“It’s just part of the game. You have to wear those type of things.
“I’m pretty sure it should be right in the next couple of days, it’s not like it’s going to keep me out for days and days.
“I just have to take care of it and once it’s feeling good just start running again I guess.”