Cooper Cronk played and won Sunday's grand final nursing a shocking 15cm break in his scapula, according to The Courier Mail.
Roosters medico Ameer Ibrahim compared Cronk's injury to those suffered by car-crash victims, and said Cronk's ability to battle through the pain was the most courageous act he has witnessed in his entire career as a sports doctor.
“It was the most heroic thing I’ve seen in 20 years — never seen anything like it,” Ibrahim said at ANZ Stadium.
“He would have been in 11 out of 10 pain coming here to the game.
“That fracture is what you see with motorbike accidents and car accidents. 11 out of 10 pain.
“It was the width of his scapula — the entire width, which would have been 15cm.
“I’ve never seen it done. Everyone I spoke to hadn’t done it.
“We broke it down to first principles. What’s the worse that can happen and move backwards from there. Could we get rid of pain? Could we improve function?
“We could. After that it was okay. I knew he wasn’t going to do any more damage. It’s a broken bone but it’s not a weight-bearing bone."
Cronk was given two shots of local anaesthetic - one before the game and the other during half-time - to help him manage the pain, but Ibrahim said that any more and he would have risked serious heart-issues.
“The other thing to note is that it was the maximum dose we could give him. Anything more and it starts playing with your heart. If you give someone too much local anaesthetic their heart goes into a funny rhythm," he added.
“We gave him 20ml before the match and 15ml at half time. The maximum we could give him was 45ml.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it … all the stars aligned.”