Cody Walker has endured a frustrating campaign this year as he has mainly been confined to the casualty ward at Redfern.
The 35-year-old has managed to register eight appearances for the season, with just half of those yielding 80-minute displays.
After an impressive start to life under Wayne Bennett, where South Sydney won four of their opening five matches, the wheels have fallen off for both Walker and the Rabbitohs.
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Walker played for the first half of his side’s Round 5 victory over the Sydney Roosters before injury first struck.
Since then, he has clocked three more games for the club, which have arrived intermittently in Round 7, 14 and 17.
His lack of ability to avoid injuries has had many questioning whether everyone has seen the last of the playmaker in the NRL.
However, Bennett has shut down any retirement talk by declaring he will lace up the boots for the Bunnies once again in 2026.
"He’s going to do another year here, and we just hope that the injuries stop - you can miss them or get them," Bennett said ahead of Round 20.
"We’ve just taken a risk with it and hopefully we’ll get a lot more out of him going forward."
Walker has been hampered by a troublesome calf issue throughout the second half of the campaign.
He finally overcame this, only to suffer a hamstring injury upon his return to action against the Dolphins.
Although, in a cruel twist, it was while he was recovering from this latest setback that he suffered a recurrence of the calf issue that had previously plagued him.
"He’s probably out for another four to six weeks," Bennett revealed.
"He was at rehab training the other day and hurt his leg again.
"It just keeps happening with him. He was rehabbing for the hamstring problem and that was going great. But then he tore a calf muscle again."
The decision to hand the five-eighth another extension off the back of such an injury-plagued year will raise plenty of eyebrows given his hefty salary.
One of the main reasons for this level of doubt is that he represents a significant risk of being sidelined for large periods of next season due to his age.
Yet Bennett defended the club’s training methods and claimed Walker's injuries were purely down to misfortune and were something that the player and the club would simply have to manage in the future.
"It’s not easy for him," Bennett stated.
"But, at the same time, he’s doing everything right and we’re doing everything right.
"You can’t blame anyone for it. It’s part of getting older — you become more fragile and it’s all part of the process."