Playing through the pain

I am one of those sportsmen who never knows when enough is enough.

I remember being carried off the rugby field on a stretcher, a few years back, when a man mountain fell on my neck during a semi-final match.

With my team fighting hard to get the result that would lead us to the final I swiftly brushed off the advice from the sideline medics and my concerned mother and demanded that the coach put me back on (I was having a pretty good game before the injury).

So, after negotiating with a reluctant coach and still seeing little Tweety Birds circling round my head, I returned to action on the pitch and helped my team get to that final.

Was I wise to do this?

Definitely not!

Would I do it again?

Absolutely!

There’s a funny thing about sports people and ignoring doctors’/medics’ orders.

The will to win and fight to the end is deeply entrenched within any passionate athlete.

In that moment, despite risking further injury, the adrenaline is so high that exiting the field of play/ring/court/course is totally out of the question and extremely unfathomable.

Injuries will eventually put you out of action – no doubt about it, but when your team needs you, you find a way to fight through the pain unless you’re unconscious (or dead).

This Saturday I went to Bosman Stadium to report on the Valke Peregrine League clash between Brakpan and Klerksdorp.

I was pretty surprised to see a player on the field whom I thought would not be back in action after picking up an eye-socket injury (as painful as that must be) in a clash with Boksburg the week before.

He is that type of player though.

Besides being short in stature the player has a heart of a lion.

It reminded me of some of the other moments in sport when players risked severe injury and pulled through the pain to try lift their side to victory.

When Graeme Smith took on the Aussies with a broken hand:

With just 8.2 overs remaining left to bat on Day Five to ensure a famous Test match draw against Australia in January 2009 and with skipper Graeme Smith out of action due a broken hand and elbow injury suffered earlier in the match, the Aussies thought that they had won the Test.

That was until the change room doors opened and Biff stepped out to bat at number 11 alongside Makhaya Ntini.

Despite the pain the skipper and Ntini battled for 27 deliveries to try and see out the day’s play.

With just 10 balls remaining the Australians got the winning wicket, but Smith’s sacrifice had touched the hearts of the cricketing world.

When Marshall batted with one hand and picked up seven sticks

July 14, 1984.

Obviously, I wasn’t alive then, but this is what I am talking about.

On that day, West Indies legend Malcolm Marshall came out with his left hand in plaster (due to a double fracture of the left thumb) and batted one-handed to help Larry Gomes get to his hundred.

Marshall then came back to bowl England out with seven second innings wickets.

When Tiger won the 2008 US Open

On April 15, 2008, Tiger Woods had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee.

During his rehabilitation, Woods sustained a double stress fracture of his left tibia. Throughout the 2008 US Open tournament it was clear that Woods was in pain, and the general feeling was that he was just returning from the initial surgery too soon.

He did not reveal the news about a double stress fracture until two days after the US Open was complete.

He had surgery to repair his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and needed time to rehab that and the stress fracture.

When a goalkeeper carried on with a broken neck

In the 75th minute of the 1956 FA Cup final between Manchester City and Birmingham, German goalkeeper Bert Trautmann, diving at an incoming ball, was knocked out in a collision with Birmingham’s Peter Murphy in which he was hit in the neck by Murphy’s right knee.

No substitutes were permitted in those days, so Trautmann, dazed and unsteady on his feet, carried on.

For the remaining 15 minutes he defended his net, making a crucial interception to deny Murphy once more.

Manchester City held on for the victory, and Trautmann was the hero because of his spectacular saves in the last minutes of the match.

Trautmann admitted later that he had spent the last part of the match “in a kind of fog”.

* NOTE: This piece does not aim to encourage people to play sports with injuries, but rather to play sport with an undying and competitive spirit. If you have a serious injury please seek medical assistance.

LG