Nathan Cleary gets some shock news after leading Penrith to a fourth straight title – but there could a silver lining for him and Mary Fowler

Superstar halfback Nathan Cleary has confirmed that he will need immediate surgery on his shoulder in the coming days, ruling him out of the the Pacific Championship Test games for Australia.

Cleary, 26, has endured recurring problems with his shoulder all season, the first of which saw him miss three weeks of full-contact training in January.

On Sunday night, after leading the Panthers to a fourth straight title, Cleary confirmed rumours that he will be going under the knife again.

‘I’m not going to go into full details [of what I’ve been through], but it’s been a frustrating year,’ he said after the match

‘It was tough and it was annoying, but I had to work hard to get back. Seeing the boys go out there every week, I wanted to repay them.

‘The only way I could do that was to work as hard as I could around the clock so I could be here.

‘I said to Mum that I’ve got to play three games, and that’d be it.

I knew if I worked hard that I could get back for those three games and be sweet. It worked out.’

While the surgery will rule Cleary out of playing for the Kangaroos at the Pacific Championships from October 18 until the final on November 10, it might give him a chance to catch up with partner Mary Fowler in the UK far earlier than expected.

Fowler wasn’t able to be in the stadium to see Cleary win a fourth straight NRL crown because she was about to take to the field for Manchester City, but she was still keeping an eye on the score.

Once her match was over, she posted a message to Instagram with the word ‘Him’ along with a fire and heart-eyes emoji above a photo of Cleary celebrating with the trophy.

After she played a starring role in City’s 2-0 win over West Ham by scoring one goal and setting up the other, Fowler posted the caption ‘A good weekend indeeed’ alongside photos of her during the match and one of her wearing her man’s Panthers jersey and giving a double thumbs-up in the City dressing room.