1
'I remember looking down and my foot was facing the other way' - Drew Mitchell recalls the horror injury that took years to get over
By Online Editors
Former Wallaby winger Drew Mitchell has opened up about the mental battles that took years to overcome following a horrific ankle injury during a Super Rugby match against his old team the Queensland Reds in 2011.
“In my own opinion, I was in the form of my career and then for that to happen on the eve of the World Cup," Mitchell said on RugbyPass Legends.
Mitchell began an innocuous kick chase as the Waratahs hoisted a box kick, on the way to the contest he collided with loose forward Scott Higginbotham shoulder-to-shoulder and fell to the ground awkwardly, twisting his ankle and breaking his leg in multiple places.
“I remember looking down and my foot was facing the other way. That’s what rattled me the most.
"I also remember they relocated the ankle on the field, there was a lady that came over with a green whistle and she was trying to put the vial, it’s like the morphine, in the whistle, and she was spilling it everywhere and I was like 'f***ing give me that! I need it'."
“I soon as I sucked on that, the pain was fine.
As Mitchell departed from the field on a medical cart, he remembers vividly coping abuse from the Brisbane crowd.
“I remember going up the tunnel, and of course I’m a former Queensland Reds player that left, and I just hear this ‘suck s*** Mitchell, you c***’. I don’t know why, but that one moment really stuck out.”
With his World Cup less than six months away, Wallaby coach Robbie Deans paid him a visit that night after the game where Mitchell pleaded with him to still pick him.
"Robbie came into the hospital that night, and I told him I would be fine for the World Cup, don't give up on me even though my foot is in how many pieces.
Drew Mitchell made it to the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, as Deans backed his winger despite not have regular game time under his belt on return.
"I was lucky that Robbie backed me, and picked me for the World Cup even though I was underdone."
The mental scars of the gruesome injury stayed with him long after he had returned the field, as he battled visions of every player he watched on TV dislocating his ankle and even a fan as he prepared to play a game in Wales.
"You always get over your physical, you can do your rehab, you can do your strengthening and all the rest of it but I had a lot of trouble mentally getting over that."
"I'd watch any sort of contact sport, and every tackle I thought that someone was going to dislocate their ankle. It obviously had an effect on me mentally. I started to see a psychologist about it, just to be ok about it. It would take myself to a place that would make me feel uncomfortable about it in order to become okay about it.
"I still remember when I came back later, even 12-months after I returned, I was on the bus on the way to a game at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, and the bus goes quite slowly because you are behind a police escort on horseback.
"The street there just before Millennium, there are hundreds, thousands of people banging the bus and all the rest of it. At one point there was this Australian guy jumping up and banging on the bus window and I just pictured him falling down and dislocating his ankle.
"So even though I was back playing for a long time, I just hadn't addressed that fear of me doing it again."
Watch the full episode of RugbyPass Legends with Drew Mitchell below.
RugbyPass Legends - Drew Mitchell Part II:
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Fabien Galthie's emphatic World Cup statement after Six Nations win
3
Four England talking points after their Six Nations rout of Wales
4
What Steve Borthwick told Matt Sherratt following Wales debacle
5
Latest Comments
My name is Amelia Jonathan from the United States, Using this opportunity to thank Dr. Ughulu is a grateful thing to me, for over years I have been sick with Hepatitis B disease, I have done a lot of things to get cured of my diseases and nothing has worked out. I have taken different types of medication for it , but it still doesn’t work for me. I still keep going for a check up so that the doctor will tell me my disease has be gone, because i’m taking my medicine with no result nothing has been cured, I have spent a lot of money just to get cure of Hepatitis B. until my old time friend came to my place and saw what am going through, and then direct me to contact Dr. Ughulu who is a very powerful man, which I did explain my problem to Dr. Ughulu and send me a herbal remedy bottle and explain to me how I should drink it. So I started to drink the herbal tea in one week that I drink the herbal tea. I went for a check up to check if I’m cured from Hepatitis B disease, then the nurse told me nothing is wrong with me anymore and said I’m fine. I am the happiest person right now. I promise Dr Ughulu I will testify about his good work on the internet. Reach out to Dr. Ughulu Via: drughulupowerfulspelltemple@gmail.com Thank you so much sir for what you did for me you’re the best of all. TEXT OR CALL: +1(252) 409-1841 or website: https://drughulupowerfulsp.wixsite.com/my-site-ughulu WHATSAPP NUMBER: +1(720) 794-2516
Go to commentsI’d take the Sharks, Stormers, Bulls, and Lions back in a second. Super Rugby Pacific is improving and the conference system sucked ass and never should have been implemented but if you think the quality of rugby is better without the South African franchises, you are kidding yourself.
And there is nothing authentic about Moana Pacifika, it is a sixth NZ franchise. Almost all of the players are NZ citizens, born and raised in NZ, were developed by NZ secondary schools and play in the NPC. The players just happen to be of Pacific heritage (just as there are a very large number of Pacific heritage players on the original five NZ franchises). Moana Pacifika is a marketing ploy for Auckland’s second SRP franchise.
Fiji Drua are legitimately a Pacific island team. Most players are born in Fiji, the players live and train in Fiji, and they play their home matches in Fiji.
Go to comments