As I understand it, after the McKinnon accident, the NRL selected QBE as the insurer for all clubs (at least for the top 25). This is not a good precedent for the NRL that the first time there is a highly paid player getting a career ending injury, they go down the pre-existing injury excuse.
Given that Watmough has been insured by QBE (with both Manly and Parra paying the premiums) since they took over in 2014, they must believe the injury existed then. If they were that concerned you would think they would have done a full medical history on every top 25 player and then excluded certain players injuries from future claims.
I am with Mad Max - why the hell do we have insurance?