IT has been a saddening start to the new year in English rugby league at elite level, with two popular Betfred Championship full-backs facing shocking setbacks.
Bulls star Tom Holmes, arguably Bradford’s player of the season in 2023, has informed the public he has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer (SPTCL) and will require gruelling chemotherapy as part of his recovery.
And former Keighley flier Quentin Laulu-Togaga’e, who left Cougar Park in October 2022 to join his current club Sheffield Eagles, suffered a heart attack doing some individual winter training.
The man affectionately known as ‘QLT’ has shared a positive update on his condition from his hospital bed, but like with his Bradford counterpart, no-one knows if or when he might return to action.
Without question, the health of Holmes and QLT is the priority, and everyone’s main concern should be the pair of them getting better.
But, being the competitive sportspeople the pair are, they would no doubt love to return to the rugby league field sooner rather than later.
And if they need any inspiration, here are five men who have made it back, against the odds, to achieve great things…
CHRISTIAN ERIKSEN
When I clicked on my TV two-and-a-half years ago to see how the Denmark versus Finland game was going at Euro 2020, I was left pretty disorientated.
The pitch was on the screen, and it wasn’t half-time yet, but nothing was happening.
It was only when I searched on Twitter, and listened to the pundits in the BBC studio, that I realised the full horrors of what had happened.
Denmark’s star man Christian Eriksen had suffered a cardiac arrest without warning, nearly swallowing his tongue to exacerbate the situation
Fortunately, his captain, Simon Kjaer, solved the latter problem, possibly saving his team-mate’s life, while pictures soon circulated of Eriksen lying awake on the stretcher, allaying fears that the worst had happened.
Few thought he would ever play again, but having an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator fitted, which can reset the heart after a cardiac arrest, allowed him to play without fearing for safety.
Those devices are banned for players in Italy, meaning he had to leave his then-club Inter Milan, but he made his comeback for Brentford in February 2022, and proved a key influence in steering them clear of relegation.
He then joined footballing juggernaut Manchester United that summer, helping them into the Champions League and becoming a Carabao Cup winner too.
TIGER WOODS
From 1997 to 2008, Tiger Woods was by far and away the biggest golfing superstar on the planet.
Sponsorship deals galore, a video game series named after him and 14 majors to his name, he seemed to have it all.
But then things went south for Woods, in alarming fashion.
He won that 14th major, the 2008 US Open, practically on one leg he was in so much pain with his knee.
A year later, a major scandal that shocked the world set him back further, as Woods admitted to multiple infidelities, leading to his divorce from Swedish model Elin Nordgren.
As his golf dropped off alarmingly in the 2010s, he was then arrested in 2017 for driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, later pleading guilty to reckless driving.
Nearly everyone thought Woods’ days of competing for Majors were behind him, but not the man himself, and he sensationally triumphed at the 2019 Masters, then later that year claimed the Zozo Open, his 82nd win on the PGA Tour, the joint-most of all-time.
RISHABH PANT
A serious car crash in 2021 kept Woods out for over a year, but he still returned to play at the 2022 Masters, a sign that the American might literally be unstoppable.
Superstar Indian wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant is looking to replicate that at the upcoming IPL.
The youngster was already making waves in his home country, especially in limited overs cricket, but he largely came to the attention of English audiences with a blisteringly quick Test century at The Oval in 2018, at the age of just 20.
He became the second-youngest keeper in Test history to hit three figures, and despite a dip in form thereafter, he returned from being dropped to produce two sensational innings in Australia, as India claimed just their second ever Test series win Down Under.
That led to Pant being named in the ICC Test Team of the Year for 2021, but only a year later, he was involved in an horrific car crash, which may well have been fatal had it not been for the heroic actions of bus driver Sushil Kumar and bus conductor Paramjeet Singh, who rescued him in the 5:30am incident.
Mercifully, Pant avoided any brain or spinal injuries, but injured his head, back, feet, knee and wrist, as well as suffering burns after the car reportedly caught fire in the crash.
Unsurprisingly, he missed out on any cricket in 2023, but he is set to play for, and captain, the Delhi Capitals in this year’s IPL.
What a way to make your comeback, in the most watched franchise tournament in the world.
JONAS GUTIERREZ
Newcastle were slumping badly in the Premier League by 2008, with the days of Kevin Keegan’s Entertainers and Sir Bobby Robson’s Champions League team long behind them.
Argentinian Jonas Gutierrez was signed along with compatriot Fabricio Coloccini, ahead of the 2008-09 season, and in a season where virtually the whole squad under-performed, the Toon were relegated by a final-day defeat to Aston Villa.
Many of us Newcastle fans were prepared to write the pair of South Americans off as two more foreign flops, but instead they stuck with us and played a key role in helping the club romp to the Championship title in 2009-10.
Gutierrez was a regular in the three Premier League seasons that followed, missing just six games in total during that period, only to barely play for two years after being diagnosed with cancer.
He went through gruelling chemotherapy in 2014 and few could have imagined he would return to top-flight action as quickly as March 2015, when he came on as a substitute for Newcastle against Manchester United.
But anyone thinking this was a sympathy pick would be mistaken, and he was to play a key role in Newcastle’s battle against relegation.
In a script even Hollywood would find overly fantastical, Gutierrez scored the crucial second goal in Newcastle’s 2-0 home win over West Ham on the final day of the 2014-15 season, ensuring the Magpies stayed up at the expense of Hull.
Gutierrez was released grubbily at the end of the season, via a phone call, but that only cemented his Newcastle legend further, as we rallied around a man who deserved so much better.
ANT WALKER
Few composite lists like this contain hulking rugby league player Ant Walker alongside Tiger Woods, but the prop forward has his own remarkable comeback tale to tell.
The then 25-year-old had featured for both St Helens and Wakefield in Super League, while enjoying successful loan spells with the likes of Whitehaven and Rochdale.
But his world was turned upside down in 2017, when he was diagnosed with a potentially fatal brain condition.
He was told he could never play rugby league again, and it meant the Welsh international had to make the heart-breaking decision to retire just days before the 2017 World Cup, where he would have featured for his country.
But Walker always believed he could beat the condition with treatment, and was given the all-clear to play again by April 2020.
He then had an agonising year-long wait to see if anyone would take a chance on him, due to Covid-19 stopping all rugby league below the top flight that year from mid-March onwards.
But his Wales boss John Kear took a chance on him with the Bradford Bulls, whom he helped reach the Championship play-offs in 2021, before finally getting to play at a World Cup with his country the following year.
The prop continues to ply his trade in the Championship, now at Widnes, and will be hoping to help guide the Vikings to better than their ninth-placed finish last season.
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