Jack Gosiewski spent three weeks knocking on Des Hasler's door, just asking for another chance.
Struck down by a pelvis injury, the second-rower's NRL season looked over in June.
He required surgery that would end the most fruitful year of his career, after managing just 14 games between 2016 and 2018.
Now three months on, Gosiewski will run out for the Sea Eagles on Saturday night against his former club South Sydney in the biggest match of his life.
"I was at a point there where I was playing games and then post-game could hardly walk," Gosiewski told AAP.
"Then when I started missing games I was thinking I couldn't see myself coming out the other end of the injury.
"I was talking to other players who had it and they were saying they'd only had surgery to fix it.
"But mid-year we didn't want to make it an option."
Gosiewski took up pilates, got injections and began running. Slowly.
"I had only done two running sessions and I was in Des' office before the Melbourne game in Melbourne asking him to pick me," Gosiewski said.
"And he didn't. Because I obviously wasn't ready. But I was still in there asking.
"The next week I was back in his office again, saying 'come on mate you've got to pick me'.
"But I went through the rehab process and was in a position where I knew physically I was ready to come back."
The 25-year-old eventually returned three weeks after that Melbourne match, but his persistency has been rewarded.
It can be revealed the second-rower recently signed the first multi-year deal of his career, after inking a new two-season contract with the Sea Eagles.
"My whole career I've only had one-year deals," he said.
"It's a big relief to not have to worry about that now.
"Because no matter how much you try not to think about it, if you're on a one-year deal and you get an injury mid-year you start wondering about what's next."
He's also become one of the unsung heroes of Manly's late-season push, forming a first-class combination with Daly Cherry-Evans on Manly's right edge after only uniting there last month.
"It's one of those things where having (the injured) Curtis (Sironen) and Joel (Thompson) there all year I didn't get the chance to work much with Chez," he said.
"I think me and Chez have done a good job just working with his strengths and my strengths."
Australian Associated Press
