The toll for breaking the pain barrier
Former Warrior Kevin Campion and other NRL players tell of the ongoing impact injuries are having on them
DURING THE 2000 season at the Broncos, the club doctor told Campion to hang up his boots at the end of that year because of his neck injury.
Instead Campion joined the Warriors and played on for four more seasons.
He still feels the effects of that injury – nerve damage that affects his upper body.
‘‘From my neck I get numbness in both arms,’’ Campion says. ‘‘All my fingers are basically numb. I have full movement in them but I can’t feel anything any more, you could chop them off if you wanted to and I wouldn’t feel it. I had those problems when I was playing, I knew how bad it was in 2000 at the Broncos, and I was told ‘that should be your last year’.
‘‘It’s more annoying than anything. But I don’t want to go in and have a scan because I’m frightened to find out how bad it is. I’m happy to live with it because knowing how bad it is frightens me.’’
Campion says he struggled to maintain his weight after he retired but is now back to his playing weight of 93 kilograms.
‘‘When I retired, I vowed I would never train again but then I put on 15 kilos and my body couldn’t cope,’’ he says. ‘‘I looked in the mirror one day and saw how fat I was. So I started running and now I’m doing half-marathons every year. That helps me keep the weight off.’’ The former Gold Coast Chargers, North Sydney Bears and Northern Eagles hooker played 11 seasons at the top level, including four games for Queensland in State of Origin. Goddard says he lives with constant reminders of what he went through on the football field.
‘‘I still get a lot of pain because of my neck,’’ he says. ‘‘I still get pins and needles down the right side of my arm. It has really started to kick in over the last 18 months, getting the tingles down that side of my body. I went and saw someone about it but they just told me it was the wear and tear of years of stress on the body. Sometimes it’s really painful, other times it just comes and goes.’’
Goddard also has no cartilage left in either knee, and can no longer run on hard surfaces.
‘‘For the most part of the last 10 years, I’ve been training and doing triathlons,’’ he says. ‘‘But I’ve had a clean-out of both knees recently and they are gone now. There’s no cartilage in them and I can’t roadrun any more.’’
STEVE TURNER
The former NSW winger is worried that he might need a knee replacement following the injury that brought his career to a premature halt one game into the 2013 season.
The former Panthers, Storm and Bulldogs has had five on his right knee, surgery to repair a shoulder and thumb, two ankle operations, and three on his foot plus another on his ‘‘good’’ knee.
‘‘Every now and then it swells up,’’ Turner says. ‘‘My knee is bone and bone.’’
Now settled into an off-field role with the Bulldogs, Turner won’t run for longer than 15 minutes because of the discomfort. ‘‘At the back end of my career I couldn’t do things with my daughter,’’ he says. ‘‘I had to be selfish so I could train and play. I had to sacrifice a lot of things. Even now it swells up. People have asked me to play in charity games but I can’t.’’
SHAUN TIMMINS
The former St George Illawarra utility has undergone 17 knee operations, not to mention a shoulder reconstruction, an elbow reconstruction and a plate inserted into his face after a fractured cheekbone.
But for Timmins, his knees are the big problem. He is no longer able to run. It’s the simple things in life he wishes he could do.
‘‘I’d love to play touch footy, or even just be able to chase after my kids,’’ he says. ‘‘My missus just went and bought me a skateboard so that I could chase after my kids at the park because I can’t run. They are three and five years old, so when they are on their bikes at the park it’s hard to keep up with them. But in saying all that I would do it all again, it was worth it.’’ WAYNE BENNETT did his old, and soon-to-be new, club Brisbane as well as the Warriors a massive favour at Hunter Stadium yesterday by masterminding Newcastle’s 42-12 dismantling of Parramatta, leaving their finals hopes in tatters.
Parramatta’s seventh straight loss to the Knights left them in ninth position. The Eels now need to hope the Storm beat the Broncos in Melbourne next Friday then beat the Raiders in Canberra next Saturday, and also hope the Warriors (26) do not win against the Titans today and the Panthers in Penrith a week later.
In front of a crowd of 18,558, the Knights trailed 12-8 at half-time after running into a strong southerly for the first 40 minutes, but responded with six second-half tries in a flurry of 34 unanswered points for their fourth home win after previous victories over the Warriors, Storm and Roosters.
Newcastle’s disrupted start became disjointed when Tyrone Roberts tried a short kick-off but could not make the 10 metres into a strong southerly, gifting the Eels a penalty and prime field position.
A Newcastle handling error compounded that, Will Hopoate stepped inside some frail defence to score, and Chris Sandow converted for a 6-0 lead.
The Knights regrouped with unconverted tries by rookie left winger Sione Mata’utia to take an 8-6 lead. Jarryd Hayne’s only trick shot came in the 32nd minute when he bent down to tidy up a Kurt Gidley grubber kick and scooped up the ball from between his legs. Newcastle looked like hanging on to take a two-point lead to the break but Gidley spilled a wayward Roberts pass to give the Acrobatic try: Chanel Mata’Utia of the Knights scores a try during the round 25 NRL match against the Eels in Newcastle last night. Eels a sniff. Sandow made a deft short pass to back-row tear-away Tepai Moeroa, who lost a boot but still trampled over Gidley and Korbin Sims to crash over. Sandow converted, giving the Eels 12-8.
Sims was helped from the field in the 37th minute with concussion after trying to tackle David Gower. Jarrod Mullen slid over to score in the 50th minute and Gidley converted for a 14-12 lead.
The Knights were unlucky not to add a penalty goal after Tim Mannah flopped on Mullen after the try, but Adam Devcich ruled no foul play. It mattered little as Chanel Mata’utia crossed for a secondhalf hat-trick, scoring in the 53rd, 59th and 79th minutes, Beau Scott charged over in the 64th, and Joey Leilua finished off another backline raid in the 66th.
It completed a 72- point around for the Knights.
turn-
Meanwhile, the Canberra Raiders took a vital step towards avoiding the wooden spoon by defeating the West Tigers 27-12 in the capital last night.
Roosters v Storm. Warriors v Titans, 4pm; Sea Eagles v Panthers, 5pm. Cowboys v Sharks, 9pm.