NATHAN Mason would laugh at any footballer diving and rolling around in fake agony – after playing on with his bone STICKING OUT of his finger.
The Leigh star suffered the gruesome injury in Monday’s Super League derby with Wigan, the Centurions’ first match in front of fans for 435 days.
But only afterwards did the true horror become clear as he sat in Wigan Infirmary waiting to hear whether the compound dislocation would be operated on.
Not only did he go down the route of just having in shoved back in place, it remains an open wound – and he played on for a number of tackles until the blood was spotted.
Even then, it was assumed he had suffered a recurrence of the busted – cut, not broken – nose he also picked up.
And he revealed he carried on facing the Warriors on attack as he did not want to let his team-mates down.
“I actually finished the set off, it happened on tackle one or two,” revealed Mason. “You’ve just got to do it for the team, get on with the game and help your mates.
“I had blood on my face and the referee saw it, so he stopped the game. Then when the physios saw it, I was taken off very quickly.
“And when I first came off, the coaches thought it was a head knock.
“I got into a tackle and I just felt a ping. I started shaking my hand and the next thing my bone popped out!
“It was weird. I’d say it was more of a sting when I did it but the adrenaline got me through. I then tried moving it and nothing was there.
“I’d scored in the game, then I cut my nose then I did my finger. It’s a dislocation but it dislocated that hard, the bone came through my skin.
“My reaction when I saw the bone was, ‘I’m going to struggle tackling here.' They were on our line but luckily they didn’t come at me.
“If they had, it could’ve been just hanging on by the skin.
“We tried to knock it back in at the stadium but we were struggling, so I went to hospital and they knocked it back in there.”
Mason, 27, is back at the experts on Tuesday after spending 14 hours at Wigan Infirmary, arriving still in his playing kit and being surrounded by Warriors fans.
And he lifted the lid on how things were done the hard way as he faces either four weeks or four months out.
He added: “I told them to put it back in place rather than operate on it, so I had a couple of people yanking on it. Luckily, it went back in.
“And it definitely hurts a lot more when it’s put back in than when it comes out.
“It’s still not stitched up, it’s an open wound – and they wait to see if it’s not infected before closing it up.
“Now it all depends on my tendons. If they’re OK, I’ll be three or four weeks out. If some have snapped, it’ll be three or four months.
“Normally on a Monday night, I chill out and watch Netflix!”
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