Rugby league is a majorly tough sport – everyone knows that, with injuries often part and parcel of the game.
However, along the line, a number of injuries can make you wince for how downright horrific they are.
The likes of Canberra Raiders’ Elliott Whitehead suffered a gruesome facial injury last week that needed emergency plastic surgery whilst New Zealand Warriors star Chanel Harris-Tavita has had a more desperate blow.
The Warriors went down 70-10 against the Melbourne Storm in one of the most-sided games in NRL history, but Harris-Tavita will remember it for a wholly different experience.
After rupturing his testicle, the courageous halfback played on for a staggering 46 minutes before leaving the field for surgery.
Remarkably, the injury will only keep him out for a month.
Head coach Nathan Brown, however, was dismayed by last week’s result and has made a number of changes.
“We can’t ignore what happened and some individuals certainly need to be addressed with what happened, and the group need to understand that second half was not where anyone wants to be as a sporting club or a business,” he said.
“There was obviously some younger players that had some really, really difficult days. You just want them to learn from it.
“Obviously it’s a bad experience but you want them to actually get some good out of it, and some good out of it is there’s obviously things I got wrong understanding what that impact is, I suppose not only on them but on the team.”
