By Glen Leat
July 24 2002

Many of us using this site have played rugby as well as watching it, and whether the last time you pulled on your shirt and boots was at school, as part of a local club or as a result of a drunken bet in the University bar I bet you have been injured at some time.

In the same way that anglers talk about their prize catch do ex-rugby players discuss their prize injuries? Mike Reed, an artist from Minneapolis in the States, was inspired by his eldest son playing rugby and painted this sketch. Given that artists, like writers, base their work on what they know let's hope that it is not his son with the bloody nose! If you want to see more of Mike's sketches click on www.winternet.com/~mikelr/index.html (though he is not a rugby painter).

So what about you lot, have you a particular injury you want to share? Can you beat the spectacle of Dave Egerton having his dislocated shoulder tended on the pitch about 10 years ago? I remember the doctor taking off his shoe, placing his foot under Eggy's armpit and tugging as hard as he could. Whatever the doc tried the oddly angled shoulder would not budge and eventually Egerton had to leave the field - not that I imagine he would have carried on playing had the doctor done his stuff in front of the Flowerpots! Ouch.

I broke my jaw in two places playing football and was wired up for eight weeks - that'll teach me for playing a game with the wrong shaped ball. When playing rugby at school I was very adept at steering clear of the very rough stuff and so remained injury free; mind you that had more to do with the fact that I was crap at the game and so no one would pass the ball to me!

Tell us your tales of pain and suffering on the messageboard.