After a horror injury, Willie Isa insists he didn’t fear about his Wigan future - because he was just concentrating on being able to walk properly again. The veteran second-row is thankfully nearing his comeback after nine months out with a shocking ankle fracture dislocation. He was crocked last April from an illegal challenge that saw Castleford forward Sylvester Namo hit with a five-game ban.
Isa missed the rest of the campaign with quadruple-winning Warriors and faced a long, arduous road back to fitness. He was also out of contract at the end of the season and, due to turn 36 on New Year’s Day, it would have been understandable if a new deal might not come his way.
But boss Matt Peet gave the hard-working forward another one-year contract in October and now the popular Aucklander is preparing for his tenth campaign with Wigan. On whether he did worry about getting that extension, Isa insisted: “Not really. It was a weird one.
“The main thing for me was trying to get the ankle right. Everything is geared around making sure my ankle is right to the best of its ability to give myself every chance. “It’s about getting it right for performance but also right as a human being. Of course I’m contracted to play rugby league - but I want to be able to walk normally which is the key thing.
“Obviously, I wanted to make sure I could compete - but also be able to walk into shopping centres and go for a coffee, not this year or next year but the year after and make sure I’m alright. Maybe because I’m a bit older now, the contract side of it wasn’t the main thing.”.
