We very rarely see games where a player has sustained a serious injury, and yet they are completely unaware of the injury, until now.
Broncos back, Denan Kemp, was unaware that he was playing most of the 2010 season with broken ribs, an injury which is rather painful, particularly in the game of rugby league.
The entire time, Kemp found himself continually dumbfounded as to why he he failed to feel any pain coming from ribs, and how he managed to play for so long without even knowing his ribs were broken.
The incident occurred last March in a game against the Warriors, when Kemp copped an accidental knee to the ribs. Kemp, who thought that the injury was not too severe was sent to hospital later that night, but then subsequently released the following morning.
He soon found himself back in the hospital however, after scans revealed that he had suffered a collapsed lung, prompting subsequent scans to be undertaken, which found that Kemp had three broken ribs, one displaced rib, and a punctured lung.
Kemp managed to return earlier than expected in April against Newcastle, but the rib injury again struck him down, and he found himself struggling to make the impact necessary, even in the Queensland Cup.
“They were separated the whole time which explained why I kept saying they didn’t feel right,” said Kemp, ready to make a flying start for Brisbane on the left wing when the NRL begins next month.
“I was trying to play footy but my ribs were broken which was never going to work.
“It was only with a few rounds to go until the end of the season that I had a special scan which showed it was broken.
“We’d done heaps and heaps of scans that didn’t show anything but I kept telling them something was still wrong and eventually they did this 3-D scan.”
Kemp who performed admirably for the Broncos in 2008 in his first year, crossed the Tasman and played for the Warriors for a year, before making his way back to the Sunshine State, and he has been training the house down, now that a wing spot is available.
“I’m fitter, I’m about six kilos heavier and I’m the same speed … everything is better,” said the 23-year-old, who’ll appreciate the extra kilos against some of the bigger wingers in the NRL.