“I think Foz has more metal than bone in his body, he was definitely a great mentor,” Gordon said.

“All the boys were always reaching out, they saw me when I was at my worst and were a little bit worried, but were stoked when I got back into it.”

The incident, surgery and redemption

Gordon was one of the standard trainers in his Glitter Strip preseason, only for his life to be thrown into turmoil.

He remembers running into contact and experiencing some pain down the front of his throat. He didn’t think much of it at the time.

A week later, another carry changed everything as he was informed a 10-millimetre hole in the dura mater – the membrane which holds the spinal fluid together and wraps the spinal cord and brain – had opened. But it took two months to identify where it was in his neck.

“The first month was the toughest, we didn’t know what it was and how to treat it, and sitting upright and standing up was really painful,” Gordon said.

“I got to the stage where I couldn’t really sit up for more than 10 seconds without having splitting headaches.”

Gordon spent four weeks near motionless laying in bed. When it became apparent it was not healing, he ventured to Perth to discuss his plight with more specialised radiologists.

That decision fast-tracked his comeback, culminating in an NRL debut before being released by the Titans to return to rugby union.

“It was special, it was also a little bit daunting because I’d come back so quickly,” Gordon said.

“I felt like the work I put in before my injury put me in a good spot to come back.”

Path to the World Cup

That outing was Gordon’s only chance in the NRL, although he admits he would “never say never” to returning.

“The injury changed a lot, I was a year behind where I wanted to be, and was probably a year behind where the club wanted me to be as well,” Australia’s 2023 Rugby World Cup five-eighth revealed.

“There’s a World Cup coming to Australia in ’27, and it just felt like the right time to come back. If I didn’t have the injury, who knows? It’s a question no one will ever know.”

Gordon was immediately parachuted onto the Wallabies’ Spring Tour upon his release, only to tear his quad, suffer a broken nose, and pick up “a little crack in my wrist”.

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His setbacks forced him to miss the Reds season-launching defeat to the Waratahs, but the five-eighth’s comeback will resume against the Highlanders.

“The spinal fluid leak was probably partly the reason I had all the niggles because I had about six months off any training or footy,” Gordon said.

“Having that long off to a 12-week quick turnaround before playing games was probably not a great block to build the body up.”

Gordon’s pedigree likely would have earned him the No.10 jumper at the Brumbies, Waratahs and Force.

Instead, he chose Queensland, where he will vie with fellow Wallaby Tom Lynagh for the job.

Gordon, a Sunshine Coast product, has recently welcomed his first child into his clan. His desire not to stray too far from home fuelled part of his decision.

But as Lynagh slowly builds back to full-fitness, having been sidelined with a niggling hamstring issue, the fight does not faze Gordon.

“You look across the teams in Super Rugby, and they all have Wallaby 10s as well, so I’d probably get the same question at those clubs,” Gordon said.