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Newcastle Thunder Vs Leigh Programme

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JACK JOHNSON - BALL BREAKER<br />

What a load of b******s!<br />

That was the reaction put out to the<br />

world by Jack Johnson following a<br />

freak injury sustained in the build-up<br />

to this year’s Summer Bash in July.<br />

Gearing up for the clash with York<br />

City Knights an errant knee belonging<br />

to Isaac Nokes set Johnson off on what<br />

he describes as the worst 10 hours of<br />

his life.<br />

“We were doing a defensive drill at<br />

training, I made a tackle, but as I’ve<br />

gone to put Nokesy on his back, his<br />

knee came up and it went straight into<br />

my testicle,” Johnson said.<br />

“I tried to get up, did another tackle,<br />

but then I walked off the ground and<br />

threw up three times on the pitch. I<br />

went green.<br />

“I laid down in the physio’s room and all<br />

the lads came in having a laugh. They<br />

enjoyed seeing me in pain. They didn’t<br />

realise how bad it was at the time.<br />

“After an hour, I checked on my testes<br />

and one of them was huge, like three to<br />

four times the size of normal. It was<br />

like a tennis ball. That’s when I drove<br />

myself to the hospital.“<br />

“I was sent to ‘minor injuries’ but I<br />

thought, ‘Bloody hell, it’s not minor,<br />

it’s killing me!”<br />

Following scans, doctors discovered<br />

the blood supply to the affected<br />

testicle, his favourite left one as<br />

described to Premier Sports ahead<br />

of the Headingley match, had been cut<br />

off and as a result, would need to be<br />

removed.<br />

Undergoing surgery successfully, the<br />

obvious follow-up questions about his<br />

wince-inducing experience came to<br />

Johnson’s mind.<br />

“The first thing I asked was about<br />

having kids, and they said as long as the<br />

other testicle was fully functioning,<br />

I’d be OK,”<br />

“I also asked if I could keep the testicle<br />

that was removed so I could put it in a<br />

jar on the mantelpiece in the living<br />

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