The Rugby League world winced when Tyson Frizell ruptured his testicle last weekend, but it could have been so much worse than first imagined.
The short-term pain is unbearable to even think about, but if not treated in a particular time frame the long-term damage could be life changing.
When Brad Fittler rang Frizell to check up on him, he quickly realised his Origin back-rower was racing against the clock.
“He went to the hospital and they said ‘look, you’ve pretty much got hours when thinks like this happen,” Fittler said.
“You’ve only got hours to get in and get operated on to allow you to have further kids in the future.
“He just had a kid, or his partner did, it’s really hard to talk about getting the right lingo.
“When you get hit in that area there’s this awful pain that you get, normally it subsides after a minute and he said his didn’t subside so he went to the sideline and said ‘you know what, this isn’t getting any better.’”
Thankfully for the St George Illawarra Dragons and the NSW Blues, it seems Frizell won’t spent too long on the sidelines.
There’s no set date on when Frizell is to return, but Fittler backs his toughness to be ready come Origin time.
“When I spoke to him yesterday he was thinking around a month, so I think a lot of it comes down to the pain,” Fittler said.
“If there’s pain it’ll come down to him and he sounds like a bloke that’s got a pretty high pain threshold.
“Hopefully he is around when we’re picking teams because he’s someone that we need to be fit.”
