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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