“The kid who made a comeback.”
As Bronson Xerri prepares to make his NRL comeback following four years away from rugby league, his Bulldogs teammates are referring to him as such this summer.
Xerri made his NRL debut in 2019 as a youngster with the Sharks, however he was given a four-year ban after testing positive for exogenous testosterone.
Making the most of Canterbury and Phil Gould’s career lifeline is Xerri’s determination to become the next in a long line of rugby league comeback stories.
This is the reason the 23-year-old is embracing his new moniker, which Bulldogs captain Reed Mahoney pointed out to Xerri during a Thursday morning interview at Belmore with foxsports.com.au.
Xerri grinned sardonically and reiterated that he would not take his second opportunity lightly, thinking back to the times he nearly lost the game.
It was up and down for me; at one point, I was like, ‘nah, I am giving away the game,'” Xerri said to foxsports.com.au when asked if he felt he would ever return to the NRL. Occasionally, I’ll say to myself, “No, I have to go back.”
“I’m grateful for the opportunity and happy to be here, and I’m going to grab it with both hands.”
After his suspension, Xerri struggled with his mental health; he has openly discussed these struggles, calling the first two years of his suspension “down and out.”
He explained, “I pretty much just stayed at home and kept in my little shell because I suffered pretty bad with my mental health.”
“I actually started working as a carpenter on a job site for a few months after that, and in the last two years, I just started training with Roger (Fabri) to get my life back on track.”
Xerri clarified, though, that despite his hardships, he gained a lot of valuable life lessons, one of them being gratitude for the life of an NRL player.
