EVERY game Lee Briers plays this season is a gift.

Not just to him, but to those people who pay to watch the talismanic playmaker pull Warrington’s strings in midfield.

Wolves came so close to losing the iconic half back to a neck injury, as the 34-year-old revealed this week he was a second opinion away from never pulling on the shirt again.

“Two discs in my neck were bulging and pressing on my spinal cord and the other was prolapsed, so I was in a pretty bad state,” he said.

“I was told by a surgeon to stop playing straight away, for good.

“I went to see another surgeon for a second opinion and he told me that I could not play for three months and if, after that three months, it was no better then I would have to have all three discs in my neck removed.

“I was devastated at that point and the surgeon could see how upset I was.

“But he said, ‘You are lucky not to be in front of me in a wheelchair’ and retirement pales into insignificance in comparison to that.”

Briers found himself ‘in the darkest place I have been’, pining for a return to the game he loves.

It was a difficult time but it only multiplied his joy when he was given the green light to return.

“I used to be quite a nervous person before games, but when you nearly have it taken away you probably appreciate it a bit more. I know it is strange after 17 years, but that is how it feels, like a gift.”

And so, it was with a skip in his step that Wolves’ all-time record points scorer returned to The Halliwell Jones Stadium pitch on Sunday, his first appearance since the 17-17 draw with Wigan on the second week of the season.

The cheers and admiration from the supporters were a mark of what Briers means to the club – sentiments that are reciprocated.

“It sent shivers down my spine,” he said.

“My dad said he had a tear rolling down his face, and for a proud man like my dad to admit that says a lot.

“It was a great feeling and I want to thank the fans through this article. I want them to know they mean just as much to me.

“They have supported me through 17 years, and sometimes in that period I have been an idiot and they still have stuck by me.

“Hopefully now I am repaying that.”