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ST George Illawarra's John Olzard may never play again after a horrendous injury, which left him with three ruptured knee ligaments, a snapped hamstring and a calf muscle ripped from the bone.
The Premier League utility back's shattered knee was left hanging by a nerve after a freak on-field accident recently and a specialist told him that if it had broken, he would have been permanently paralysed in that leg.
And just when he thought his luck couldn't get any worse, Olzard was burgled while recuperating in his Cronulla home.
Out of action for at least nine months, he has resigned himself to never being able to play in the top-flight leagues again - even if his rehabilitation goes well and he is able to play again.
The 23-year-old Queenslander, who joined the Dragons this season after making three National Rugby League appearances for South Sydney in 2002, has undergone surgery to repair the damage.
"I've done my medial, my lateral and my cruciate, and pretty much everything in my knee except for the posterior. There was only a nerve holding it together and if it had have broken, my leg would've been paralysed," he said.
"The top of my calf muscle was all over the place and my hamstring snapped at the bottom and it rolled up."
While Olzard was laid up in bed earlier this week, a thief brazenly stole his laptop computer and a $1200 mobile phone belonging to his flatmate, Parramatta winger Eric Grothe.
"I was lying in bed listening to music and I heard the front door open. I thought it was my flatmate," he said.
"I hobbled outside and a lady came past and said a junkie type person was running up to the train station.
"There was a guy there and I told him I couldn't run because I'd just had a knee reconstruction. He ended up finding the bloke near the train station, jumping a fence. He (the thief) let the laptop go but we didn't get the phone. I would've loved to have got hold of him."
Olzard suffered the injury when his leg hyperextended as he tried to prevent a try in the Premier League team's Anzac Day win at Aussie Stadium. He was in agony after the tackle on Roosters opponent Shannon Hegarty.
"I was on the verge of wanting to spew," he replied when asked about the pain.
"(He) was going in for a try in the corner and I wasn't going to get there with my upper body so I tried to get under the ball with my legs.
"There's a lot of people worse off than me," he said.
http://illawarramercury.com.au/articles/2004/05/14/1084289854954.html
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Deadset that is the worst injury I have ever heard. Best of Luck to you John, I was very happy when we signed you but you have had no luck since coming to the Dragons.
Hope you can pull through it and continue to play football...maybe a move to the second row if you knee is quick enough for the backs?
The Premier League utility back's shattered knee was left hanging by a nerve after a freak on-field accident recently and a specialist told him that if it had broken, he would have been permanently paralysed in that leg.
And just when he thought his luck couldn't get any worse, Olzard was burgled while recuperating in his Cronulla home.
Out of action for at least nine months, he has resigned himself to never being able to play in the top-flight leagues again - even if his rehabilitation goes well and he is able to play again.
The 23-year-old Queenslander, who joined the Dragons this season after making three National Rugby League appearances for South Sydney in 2002, has undergone surgery to repair the damage.
"I've done my medial, my lateral and my cruciate, and pretty much everything in my knee except for the posterior. There was only a nerve holding it together and if it had have broken, my leg would've been paralysed," he said.
"The top of my calf muscle was all over the place and my hamstring snapped at the bottom and it rolled up."
While Olzard was laid up in bed earlier this week, a thief brazenly stole his laptop computer and a $1200 mobile phone belonging to his flatmate, Parramatta winger Eric Grothe.
"I was lying in bed listening to music and I heard the front door open. I thought it was my flatmate," he said.
"I hobbled outside and a lady came past and said a junkie type person was running up to the train station.
"There was a guy there and I told him I couldn't run because I'd just had a knee reconstruction. He ended up finding the bloke near the train station, jumping a fence. He (the thief) let the laptop go but we didn't get the phone. I would've loved to have got hold of him."
Olzard suffered the injury when his leg hyperextended as he tried to prevent a try in the Premier League team's Anzac Day win at Aussie Stadium. He was in agony after the tackle on Roosters opponent Shannon Hegarty.
"I was on the verge of wanting to spew," he replied when asked about the pain.
"(He) was going in for a try in the corner and I wasn't going to get there with my upper body so I tried to get under the ball with my legs.
"There's a lot of people worse off than me," he said.
http://illawarramercury.com.au/articles/2004/05/14/1084289854954.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Deadset that is the worst injury I have ever heard. Best of Luck to you John, I was very happy when we signed you but you have had no luck since coming to the Dragons.
Hope you can pull through it and continue to play football...maybe a move to the second row if you knee is quick enough for the backs?
poor bugger
