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Like a lot of good things in rugby league, the scene was Henson Park.

On a sun-drenched Saturday at the fabled suburban ground in Marrickville, Cody Ramsey taking bombs, carrying into contact and then trying, and failing, to keep his emotions in check, was as good as rugby league gets.

The Dragons fullback had waited 896 days to do so.

Seven months were spent in a hospital bed across the course of half a dozen surgeries after Ramsey was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, a bowel disease that causes inflammation of the digestive tract.

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He lost 28 kilograms in just seven weeks. He was told not only that his footy career was over, but that his numerous operations had left him facing potentially life-threatening sepsis complications on three separate occasions.

The chances of Ramsey and his partner Tahlia not being able to have children because of his condition was also raised.

Cody Ramsey takes on the defence for the first time in 896 days.

Which is why, on his 25th birthday, the returning No.1 was overcome when greeted on the sidelines by his daughters Mia (one year old) and Ella, born less than three weeks ago.

Ramsey started the second half of the Dragons’ pre-season NSW Cup trial against the Roosters when he punted the kick-off downfield, and summed up his 30-minute cameo aptly when he later trudged towards the Henson sheds.

“We f—ing made history,” he gushed.

Read the full story here.