Following the sickening incident which left Anthony Tupou with a badly broken jaw, Warriors centre Konrad Hurrell said he is relieved to have cleared the air with the veteran Shark.
After feeling the full force of Hurrell's raised knee while attempting a tackle in the Sharks' 20-16 loss to the Warriors in round nine, Tupou is unlikely to take the field again in 2015.
For his part Hurrell was hit with a three-match ban, and has since expressed his remorse, making a special trip to Sydney last weekend where he contacted Tupou to apologise.
"I went over to catch up with him and gave him a text, he got back to me and said he wouldn’t be around but that he would be keen to catch up when I was back in Australia; that was pretty cool," Hurrell told NRL.com.
"I was pretty down about what happened to him, that's the last thing I wanted to do.
"I just wanted to apologise for what happened… I will feel much better if I can see him in person and get to chat to him."
This week's bye for the Warriors means Hurrell will effectively miss four full weeks of football, time which he says will be spent adjusting his technique to make sure the incident isn’t repeated.
"It's pretty disappointing but I guess I didn’t have a good start to the season so this gives me four weeks to work on what I need to, and to sort the niggling injuries and fitness," the 23-year-old Tongan international said.
"Watching the last game was pretty hard, [but] these next two weeks will be massive for me.
"The whole staff is [helping me change my running style], wherever I am and whoever is available they will come and get me and make me run through players and check my technique.
"At the start it was hard to adjust but I had to do it, I need to learn how to run without lifting the knee because I don’t want to put another bloke in a position like Anthony.
"I have been playing like that my whole career, just trying to add extra power and strength to my running, but I know I need to change that."
Prior to the suspension Hurrell had experienced an up and down season with injuries and form, playing just five of the opening nine Telstra Premiership games.
