Any injury, let alone a potentially serious one for an NRL player is the last thing players, fans and the club wants – but for Melbourne Storm centre Will Chambers, that has been the case – with the 24-year old suffering from a rare blood clotting disorder.
Despite being in good health, and feeling fine – Chambers, who is suffering from Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia (ITP), could have potentially passed away from the disorder, had he continued with his NRL playing career.
It was only in the 24 hours after the Storm’s win against the Warriors, that Chambers and the medical staff at the storm noticed red dots forming a rash on Chambers skin – which saw him sent to hospital for blood tests, in which the rare disorder was picked up.
Frank Ponissi, the Football Manager at the Storm, said that had Chambers continued playing, there was a strong possibility that Chambers would have suffered internal bleeding, and potentially passed away.
“Blood platelets are required for clotting and when you have low levels when you get a bruise or a cut there’s no protection so you just bleed and if you continue to internally bleed it can go to your brain which can be fatal,” Ponissi said.
“It’s a credit to our medical staff that they sent him for blood tests as a precaution.
“He could have trained and we could have been talking about something far worse.”
What is peculiar about the disorder Chambers had, is that he was playing good footy in the NRL, and suffered no ill-effects from it – instead, Chambers said he was often feeling fine.
“I was sitting with him in hospital and he said, ‘This is bizarre I feel fantastic so I don’t know what’s going on here’.
“He doesn’t feel sick at all.”
With Chambers mother arriving from the family home in the Northern Territory to be by her son’s side, the centre must wait until his blood platelet levels reach the normal level required, before he can play again.
Ponissi could not give a timeframe for the disorder, with it sometimes being described as chronic.
“It’s random in how people get it and it’s random in terms of how people recover from it.
“The doctors haven’t ruled out the season … they’re cautious and the two keywords they’re using are ongoing and indefinite.”