Best (Worst) Injuries you have had

Ok now while safety in Rugby is paramount, Us all being rugby players or Ex rugby players and being proper men, what is the most impressive injury you have sustained? This is not to be offensive in anyway just thought it could be a fun(ish) way to compare injuries!

I will start with a few from my team
My friend ruptured his kidney a few seasons ago
last weekend one of my teammates dislocated his knee
and finally for me a broken Radius, with a plate and 6 screws which has kept me out of the season from mid september (2nd game of the season until now, though should February!)

ok so now your turn? can you beat mine!

Snapped shoulder ligaments

Dislocated shoulder due to being crushed by two obese props in a ruck

welshy6 wrote:Ok now while safety in Rugby is paramount, Us all being rugby players or Ex rugby players and being proper men, what is the most impressive injury you have sustained? This is not to be offensive in anyway just thought it could be a fun(ish) way to compare injuries!

I will start with a few from my team
My friend ruptured his kidney a few seasons ago
last weekend one of my teammates dislocated his kneeand finally for me a broken Radius, with a plate and 6 screws which has kept me out of the season from mid september (2nd game of the season until now, though should February!)

ok so now your turn? can you beat mine!

Thats what done me. Got tackled around the chest, taken man and ball side ways. my left foot was planted in moist Fife turf and the guy that tackled me's knee smacked into my knee sideways.

Broke my cartelidge, tore my ACL and everything from the knee down was pointing an unusual way.

Pain was immediate and lasting. 3 surgery's later my knee still gives me trouble.

I once got raked at the bottom of a ruck after making a tackle, and had my lip ripped off and nose broken. That was easily the worst injury I've ever had. 20 stitches to my lip, and one whole week of looking like daffy duck and it was ok! But had the mother of all ulcers over the stitch line on the inside of my mouth for bloomin' ages. Still got the nasty scar on the underside of my top lip, and can no longer whistle!

Tore my rotar-cuff too, about 2 years ago in a Sevens competition at University. Confirmed once and for all, that I should not play Sevens.

In terms of myself, broke my hand near the end of a game and continued to the end. After a few soothing beers I went home and showed it to my then flatmate (new junior doctor) who said it was fine.

Continued to be in agony but just thought I was being lame and took some stong painkillers my flatmate gave me. Copped off training but played the next week stupidly and probably aggravated it as it was far worse thereafter. Then went to get it sorted out... felt a prize idiot explaining.

Funniest injury I ever saw..... junior rugby, opposition put up a garry owen in our 22 close to the try line. Full back eyes on the ball ran straight into the post (in the days where a post protector was a thin layer of material). Guy broke his collar bone.

About 29 guys erupted in laughter. The guy was alright though, the shame was worse as he became known for that incident... "oh this is my mate who ran full speed into a rugby post and broke his collar bone etc etc".

I've broken both hands, both collarbones and my nose, which I think has a great symmetry to it. If I break anything else on one side I'm going to have to break it on the other side just to keep up the trend.

Torn all my neck ligaments down the right had side while ripping a ball out of a ruck

Was 17 and 23 years later, still have to 'realign' my neck each morning with a twist and a crack. Partner loves that sound

Playing rugby my worst injury has been several knocking outs or a sprained ankle beat that lol
Ironically playing football I tore ligaments and broke my leg all at one go that was when I was much younger though.

In soccer and earlier in skateboarding I dislocated my left knee.

In rugby I got a bad sprain on the ankle, straining the tendons in my calf and my achillies tendon. The injury was sore but holy Sh!t was the physio sore! going back there every week was not pleasant

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:In soccer and earlier in skateboarding I dislocated my left knee.

In rugby I got a bad sprain on the ankle, straining the tendons in my calf and my achillies tendon. The injury was sore but holy Sh!t was the physio sore! going back there every week was not pleasant

ouch reminds me of when I dislocated my shoulder, I was in x- ray and the guy was lifting my arm going "does this hurt?" repeatedly, then he lifted it to a certain point at which I let out a shout (the word used would not be acceptable on here!) and he proceeded to lift it up!

I do wonder why I put my body through all this, I am only 18 and have dislocated a shoulder, broken a few fingers and now got my arm plated! (although playing flanker may have something to do with it!)

I have to say I liked visiting my physio although this may have been because I was 16 and the physio doing most of the work with me was a 22 year old hot blonde woman just out of university. I hope she ain't reading this lol

I broke my little finger once...

I’ll try do these in order as best I can remember (see concussion). Quite a lot of these are repeat offenders, especially the hamstrings. Not so much an issue now, wonder why?

Dislocated thumb on right hand
Dislocated shoulder
Torn AC joint
Six stitches in chin from a raking
Dislocated 4 fingers in left hand when I fell on it
Torn Rotator cuff
Torn hamstrings
Concussion
Hernia
Torn Knee cartilage
Sprained Ligaments in back
Torn calf (worst pain I have ever known)
Prolapsed disc in neck
Sticky up rib (don’t know what that is as never went to doc with it)

The only lessons I have learned from all of this is that bones are much stronger than ligaments and hot little physios are evil and have made me cry many times. Friction treatment anyone?

Worse one at my club was when our open side got tackled - his foot stayed in ground whilst his tib and fib snapped and went through skin. Foot then twisted 180 degrees so was facing wrong way and then toe went up towards knee cap. So only Achilles holding his foot on. The ortho surgeon on call called the top bloke out as he said he was not f****** operating on that. Suffice it to say he retired after.

Our scrum half also died on the pitch but that was a heart issue rather then injury.

I had to many to count.

Dislocated little finger. Top part slipped out of socket and turned over Kathy Bates style. Made the club receptionist vomit in a bin when I showed it to her. She was hot too. I enjoyed that.

Torn achilles. Terrible injury. Takes soooooo long to recover from.

Sprained ankle, thumb and every other finger.

Broken toe. No other broken bones, O'Gara tackling to blame.

Bruised ribs. Hated getting bruised ribs cause you dont know if they are broken or not. Just have to wait it out cause there is nothing you can do about them anyway.

Strained neck. many times.

10 years later I still have reoccuring neck problems and arthritis in my intercostal cartlidge. Very plesant.

BristolDave wrote:Worse one at my club was when our open side got tackled - his foot stayed in ground whilst his tib and fib snapped and went through skin. Foot then twisted 180 degrees so was facing wrong way and then toe went up towards knee cap. So only Achilles holding his foot on. The ortho surgeon on call called the top bloke out as he said he was not f****** operating on that. Suffice it to say he retired after.

Our scrum half also died on the pitch but that was a heart issue rather then injury.

I had to many to count.

The leg was amputated I take it? Horrible story.

In addition to the shoulder damage above, I've mostly had tendon problems and once had my eye kicked in. The funniest I've seen was when our centre got carried away and missed his man and ended up tackling our 8 right around the abs. He bounced off and broke his collar bone.

Worse I've seen was a tib-fib complex fracture. Off the ball, our player slipped, locked his foot with his studs and then (and he was a hard bloke) screamed until we got him gas

In a schools match when I was a teenager our winger scored a try. Knocked over corner flag as he was diving. Fullback jumped in and was impaled by the spike end of the flag. Rushed to hospital.

GunsGerms wrote:

BristolDave wrote:Worse one at my club was when our open side got tackled - his foot stayed in ground whilst his tib and fib snapped and went through skin. Foot then twisted 180 degrees so was facing wrong way and then toe went up towards knee cap. So only Achilles holding his foot on. The ortho surgeon on call called the top bloke out as he said he was not f****** operating on that. Suffice it to say he retired after.

Our scrum half also died on the pitch but that was a heart issue rather then injury.

I had to many to count.

The leg was amputated I take it? Horrible story.

No Guns - reattached but massive amount of tissue damage (as you would expect) meant not only did he have to retire from rugby but also from work. He was quite philosophical about it though - it meant that he could go on coffee mornings with all the other school mums

both knees are wobbly. right because of a hyperextention playing squash. left in rugby, because i couldnt step or accelerate of my right leg i over-used the left. fortunately for me i have come away from rugby relatively unscathed, with only one try, one turn over and one wobbly knee for my trouble-although i did get flung about quite a bit as i am very lightweight-even now with my well developed beer gut.

but my worst injury bothers me more than both knees put together and was acchieved while climbing, well decending.

i smashed my left elbow on a steel pin someone had left in the wall giving me the worst knock on the funny bone ever. the tingling lasted days until i took off my wedding ring. the tingle eased and i havent worn my wedding ring since. mrs tooth is very suspicious of my injury. as i type i can feel it tingle.

I part dislocated my shoulder canoeing (it popped back in place all on its own) damaging ligaments in the process. Hurt but wasnt that bad apart from slightly reduced mobility. 25 years later its started playing up big time.

I know its pretty minor compared to a lot of the stuff here its just the way its returned to haunt me after all this time.

Done something weird with my knee (it was a long time ago and 'they' didn't give you the info you get nowadays). So if I get up out of a chair (for instance) the bottom part of my right leg doesn't move as quickly as the rest and makes a clunking sound.

It's one of those pains where you don't know whether to laugh or cry.

I've also broken a collar bone and a leg - but I felt no pain as they didn't belong to me.

But did you feel any remorse?

Yup some nice injuries there guys...

County Cup final..up in Alnwick...

Did my ACL, Lateral and Medial Meniscus......and we lost..pah

Worst I've had personally is a dislocated shoulder which takes a lot of physio and time out to recover from so more than anything is frustrating.

The worst I've witnessed first hand is a compound fracture to someones ankle. Horrible break and bone through the skin and pressing slightly through his sock - a bit grim I know so sorry to anyone eating...

Broken collarbone - over 30 years ago when I was tackled on the cricket pitch area and landed sideways. Then a fat lump fell on my shoulder.

Triple fracture (tibia, both tibial condyles) plus exploded meniscus 6 years ago playing wendy ball when I hyperextended my leg in a pot hole/depression on the field. Agony.

The doctors (x2) playing alongside said "it's probably just your ligaments..." so I wrapped it in ice, sat under a tree for half an hour and then drove about 10 miles to the hospital where they said: "you ain't going anywhere!" Doctor said he never seen anything like it.

It still aches occasionally but I just keep soldiering on with my 125mm 'shoe horn' and 9 screws. Treat it like a badge!

"125mm 'shoe horn'"

Classic.

I tore the cartlidge and muscles in my chest when I played club rugby in the early nineties.

Were too poor to see a doctor, so suffered through that for some time.

I explained to the coach and his answer was, use Deep Heat, wrap your chest, I will see you outside in five.

It was OK whilst you were warmed up, but after the matches I could hardly breathe.

Yeah, I thought Deep Heat and a firm bandage would be all I needed too.

I've also got a K-wire. Now to me, wire is something thin... no more than 2-3mm thick. The thing I've got is shaped like a U but more like a chunky 7-8mm 'bar' of titanium attached to the shoe horn under my kneecap (which was the only thing which didn't break for some inexplicable reason) The x-ray of it looks like a side profile of that cartoon character Jiminy Cricket with prominent head, legs and antennae.

you can almost go bionic LB.

The only airport security I triggered the alarms was on the Gold Coast. Says it all that does. A paranoid Police State!

Dubai, Paris, Frankfurt, Singapore, Osaka, Saigon, Bandar Seri Begawan no problems.

(But whatever you do... don't take more than 110ml of sunscreen through Brunei. They really frown upon that sort of thing!)

WOW

I know a lot of guys with the usuals but you lot take the biscuit!

I am extremely happy to say that the worst injury Ive ever had was a pulled hammy a few years ago, I generally tend to really look after myself and am very lucky I have a turn of pace for a big lad.

It also helps that I have never played regularly, my record is 9 games in a row, and it's all been at a very low level, except in Ireland where it was just a low level!

I think I've been lucky, apart from doing my collarbone twice in 3 months... First time they didn't pick it up until a month later. Second time I heard it snap... Was lucky it didn't need plated!

Have had a bit of trouble with my back recently, think I might have trapped a nerve somehow, but the advantage is I know lots of nice hot physios and docs who are willing to help me for free!!

Breaking vertebrae 3, 5 & 5 seems bad, especially as it seemed to do something to my thyroid and despite having limited appetitte I moved from being a flying openside to a stolid hooker. Subsequent fractures in my neck were less serious.

Biggest effect on my life was injury that ended my playing days where I managed to fracture my patella and rupture the ACL. In cold weather like today my mobility is poor and I am virtually housebound.

Favourite/silliest injury was dislocating my jaw in the act of scoring a try

Jaysus lads, are we mental?

I only played at school and managed to avoid personal injury through a tactic of cowardice.

Biltong wrote:I tore the cartlidge and muscles in my chest when I played club rugby in the early nineties.

Were too poor to see a doctor, so suffered through that for some time.

I explained to the coach and his answer was, use Deep Heat, wrap your chest, I will see you outside in five.

It was OK whilst you were warmed up, but after the matches I could hardly breathe.

I had an injury like that. In fact I now have something similar to arthritus called tietze syndrome in my intercostal cartlidge from too many chest impact injuries. Its a delight.

Galted wrote:I only played at school and managed to avoid personal injury through a tactic of cowardice.

I also only played at school and was lucky to only escape with some spectacular bruises and a strained neck.

However at University, a couple of guys from my hall saw I could chuck a rugby ball about & invited me for a trial, which was on a Saturday. On the Wednesday I was asked if I could "make up the numbers" for an indoor cricket team. During the match I fell awkwardly and twisted my left knee as it hit the (carpet on concrete) floor and it made a highly interested ripping sound. I got up and tried to run on it but my knee didn't work properly. Then it swelled to twice its normal size.

Scans at the hospital revealed ACL issues (I never knew EXACTLY what it was as this was 1992) so I spent a few weeks with crutches and intense physio with a very pleasant "just on university placement" physio called Clare. As such I never got to do my rugby trial and have never played since seeing as my GPs have always advised against it since.

I did find out though that having a pair of crutches in a nightclub is great for chatting up girls...

GunsGerms wrote:

Biltong wrote:I tore the cartlidge and muscles in my chest when I played club rugby in the early nineties.

Were too poor to see a doctor, so suffered through that for some time.

I explained to the coach and his answer was, use Deep Heat, wrap your chest, I will see you outside in five.

It was OK whilst you were warmed up, but after the matches I could hardly breathe.

I had an injury like that. In fact I now have something similar to arthritus called tietze syndrome in my intercostal cartlidge from too many chest impact injuries. Its a delight.

I am sure t isn't a delight, but then I know you were being sarcastic. It is damn sore.

Its horrendous. I have to get cortazone shots stabbed into my intercostal cartlidge every so often to dull the pain which radiates to my ribs, shoulders and oddly my throat. Thankfully its not nearly as sore as the impact that originally caused it though.

I haven't seem any 'best' injuries yet
I guess that is one where post injury a lovely nurse takes good care of all your needs, but sadly never had the experience.

I have in past broken left tib, several fingers, popped rib cartilage.
Leg scrapes too many to remember. The odd mild concussion.

Survived luckily without any permanent ill effects.
The tib/ fib 180deg case above does sound the most horrific though.

gregortree wrote:
I guess that is one where post injury a lovely nurse takes good care of all your needs, but sadly never had the experience.

I once pulled a groin muscle aged 14 and had to have a pretty nurse massage the area with Deep Heat. Potentially VERY embarrassing. Luckily wasn't...

Mr Bounce wrote:

gregortree wrote:
I guess that is one where post injury a lovely nurse takes good care of all your needs, but sadly never had the experience.

I once pulled a groin muscle aged 14 and had to have a pretty nurse massage the area with Deep Heat. Potentially VERY embarrassing. Luckily wasn't...

I dont believe you Bounce. You just told her it was your 'groin' to get that massage.
Anyway, I think you take the 'best injury' prize for that one.

100% genuine. However, I did it in football so I can't claim the prize!

I believe you. If it was a lie you would have just told us you sprained your mickey and you got her to put deep heat on that.

Deep Heat on your Mickey ?
Not sure how I would react to that.
Nurse might blow me hot and cold with that treatment.

I'v suffered

Sprained right wrist
2 broken fingers
Fractured ankle
3 broken metetarsals
Numerous concussions
Bulging/Slipped disc in C6 section of my neck
Broke my hand the other week as well.

Not a rugby injury, but this did stop me playing for a couple weeks:-

I was at my very first music gig (R.E.M.) and I'm happily singing along when I was hit in the head by a loaf of bread that someone had chucked from miles behind us. I was knocked out and required stitches. I still have the scar!

It was a Waitrose extra-crusty baguette.

Cracked a rib in a scrum (played drunk in a tour game three weeks later) and twisted a knee skiing (played ten days later). Broken my toe a couple of times which has kept me out of one or two games, but knock on wood I've never yet got a "proper" injury that's kept me out for any length of time.

Missed a county game last season though because I went out the week before, forgot my keys and had to climb over my fence to sleep in the summer house. Did my knee on the landing.