Scott Dureau - the former Port Sharks junior turned international rugby league star and later coach for his home club - had been feeling on top of the world. It had been six years since his last operation.

He had been having twelve-month scans since 2013, all coming back clear. But when he returned for his latest results in 2018, the news could only be bad.

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That was the moment the Knights legend was told he could have only two years to live.

"I was feeling really good," Dureau tells Barry Toohey in a revealing interview for the Toohey's new sports podcast Toohey's News.

"Straight away, I started to stress a little bit and he said 'I'm sorry mate, it's returned'. I had six tumours they had identified on the MRI.

"That one was a really hard one to take. Just knowing that the second time around, I had two young kids to support. I still think about it now. It's hard not to think about it some days."

Dureau was coaching the Newcastle Knights' 20s squad at the time, and at the end of his first day of chemotherapy, the club legend was back on the field.

"We decided I was going to go to work and keep doing my job," he tells Toohey. "Because there might come a day when I can't.

"While ever I'm feeling ok and feeling up to it, I'm going to keep going."

Dureau joins Toohey in the eighth episode of Toohey's News to look back on his playing career, first with the Port Macquarie Sharks, and later with the Newcastle Knights as well and Catalan Dragons.

Search 'Toohey's News' in your favourite podcast apps to subscribe, rate and review.

Where you can listen:

Have your say or suggest a guest for an upcoming episode by contributing a rating and review in your Apple Podcasts app, or get in touch via email at news@theherald.com.au.

Toohey will bring a new episode to all your favourite podcasting apps every week, complementing his premium and exclusive Knights reporting and analysis in the pages of the Newcastle Herald.