Playing the pain game

Aug 18 2007 by Chris Roberts, Hudd Main

HOW many times have we heard the phrase: ‘No pain, no gain’?

Well, I hope it comes true for me, because if it does, I’ve got an awful lot to gain!

Quite simply, the bang I took to my kidneys at Wigan last Friday is one of the most painful I’ve ever experienced.

I’ve seen it written a few times this week that I picked up the injury when I fell awkwardly on the ball, which is far from being the case. There’s no way I could have suffered an injury like this by such means.

It’s true that I did suffer such a fate with the ball, but the actual injury, which was caused by a shoulder in one of my kidneys, happened about five minutes earlier.

I knew as soon as I took the knock that it was a very painful one.

I had hoped that I would be able to run it off and be able to carry on.

It soon became apparent, however, that I was getting nowhere and the only thing to do was to come off.

To be honest, the pain just refused to go away, and on Friday night the only way I could get any sleep was to take painkillers.

That wasn’t very pleasant, and neither was going to the toilet and passing blood, which can be quite a frightening sight.

On top of that, I’ve been suffering with hay fever, and every time I sneeze the pain goes right through my body.

I have to admit, this is one of the most painful injuries I’ve ever had.

But, as we speak, I still haven’t given up all hope of playing against Bradford Bulls tomorrow.

Jon (Sharp) has been really good about the injury, and has told me I can take as long as I want to make my final decision.

And if there’s any chance at all I can play, I will. You don’t like missing games as big as this one at the Galpharm tomorrow.

In fact, that’s the feeling among everyone in the squad right now, because we’re all desperate to play and get back on the winning play-off track after our defeat at Wigan.

To be honest, there’s been a real buzz around the place since it was announced that Paul Whatuira will be joining us for next season.

To be able to sign an established New Zealand Test centre shows how we’ve progressed as a club. There’s no way we would have been able to attract a player of this quality five years ago.

All being well, there will be some more player announcements in the coming weeks.

There’s obviously always a great deal of speculation regarding player movements at this stage of the year and, to be honest, it can all be a little distracting for players. In an ideal world, we would like all the focus to be on the battle for play-off spots and nothing else.

But this, I’m afraid, is the nature of professional sport and we have to live with it.

As far as the players are concerned, we’re just keeping our heads down, trying to get into the play-offs and leave the club to make any announcements when they deem it’s right