Curtis Sironen has recently signed with Super League powerhouse St Helens, who are fresh off winning their third Super League title in a row and the 2021 Challenge Cup.

Sironen’s 2021 was not as good, with the 28-year-old spending a large portion of the season out with a severe knee injury.

The second-rower is of course the son of Balmain Tigers legend Paul Sironen, who played over 200 games for the club, representing both New South Wales in State of Origin and Australia, with the former Tiger opening-up to Channel Nine’s the Mole in a recent interview on how his son was mistreated by the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles in what turned out being his final year at the club.

“Curtis could feel his knee just wasn’t right but the club were short-staffed at the start of the season and basically guilted him into playing,” said Paul Sironen.

“He broke down as a result early in the season and it ruined his whole year.

“The surgery found four pieces of floating bone in the knee and it kept causing him problems – he had to have it drained three times over the course of the year.

BIG STORY…
League legend slams NRL club over son’s treatment!https://t.co/zgmOLdBqOU pic.twitter.com/cJ3jrUkRjl

— The Mole (@9_Moley) October 17, 2021

“Then late in the season they said they would give him a farewell game against the Bulldogs – they won easily but he sat most of the game on the bench and got just seven minutes.

“I’m dirty on the way he was treated – it wasn’t right and there was little thought given to his welfare.”

A huge deal has been made out of player welfare and promoting the return to normalcy once a player has retired from the game, which means if these allegations are true then the Sea Eagles have done the complete opposite with repercussions needed.

There is no word from Curtis Sironen on these allegations as of yet; however, if he does back his Father’s claims that he was guilted into playing whilst injured, then an investigation could ensue.

It also seems that, if true, a result of Sironen’s reluctance to play in the first place and subsequent injury was to be continually treated with disrespect, almost as if the club blamed him for the injury that he so desperately did not want to happen