Other stuff.
A good read about a pretty good footballer who could have been even better (even though he did play for Australia) except for a terrible injury in 2011.
'He could have died': The horror injury that left Marshall fearing for Lawrence
Benji Marshall thought Chris Lawrence was going to die.
"It’s the worst injury I’ve ever seen," Marshall says. "I don’t want to make it too gory and bring up too many memories but he was sitting there, choking on his own blood, waiting for an ambulance, trying to keep himself calm.
"The ambulance took an hour. He was sitting there in shock, shaking. There was nothing we could do.
"I swear to God there was a chance he could have died. You could hear the blood in the back of his throat. I lost my shit. I was crying. I was rattled for two or three weeks."
Lawrence and Marshall, two Tigers favourites, will celebrate milestones on Saturday evening in Newcastle with the former bringing up 250 games in the NRL and the latter his 250th in Tigers colours.
Marshall maintains Lawrence is the "heart and soul of the Tigers". Lawrence says "to this day when Benji speaks, you can still hear a pin drop".
But this particular February afternoon in 2019, when Lawrence collided with a teammate while preparing for a trial against the New Zealand Warriors, will never be forgotten by either of them. Initially it looked like it had ended any hopes of Lawrence joining Marshall in the Tigers' 250 club.
"I knew it was bad when I started to feel around my face and it basically caved in," Lawrence said.
"Initially I thought I had broken my jaw. The surgeons later told me they'd only seen such injuries in car crashes. There were 12 bones broken. I had to get seven plates. There were three or four screws to every plate.
"Seeing how the boys reacted, especially with the blood and how swollen my face was, I knew it was serious.
"The only good thing was my young daughter [Emmerson] did not have to see my face because I couldn't fly home."
When the Herald first ran the news
about Lawrence's shocking injury, the Tigers only agreed to do the story if we promised not to publish the gruesome photos of his face.
Another Tigers favourite, Robbie Farah, who played a club-high 277 games, spoke about his emotions that day during a video tribute for Lawrence that will be uploaded to the club's website at lunchtime on Saturday.
Not only did Lawrence overcome the shocking injury, he had no issues subsequently having his face smashed by rivals each week in the NRL. A lot of players would have lost their nerve. Lawrence said he would have quit if he could not give 100 per cent.
The Tigers junior thought his career was going to end eight years earlier, in 2011, when he was tackled in a game against Canberra and his hip ripped out of its socket.
For three months he was unsure if he would play again. He had inked a five-year deal a few weeks before the Campbelltown Stadium accident.
Lawrence recalled the agony he felt as his hip remained dislocated for more than two hours. He needed to be knocked out by medicos at hospital as five doctors did their best to get the hip back into place.
"And had the hip been dislocated any longer, there would have been an issue with blood supply to the hip, and they would have needed to operate. Hip surgery would have ended my career,'' said Lawrence, who was lightning quick but lost some of his speed from that day.
"That injury taught me an important lesson about only worrying about what you can control, and not what other people say or think."
Lawrence, like Marshall, remains the link to the Tigers' glory days. Now 31, he can still remember debuting against the Broncos in 2006, then racing back from Brisbane to complete a year 12 English exam at St Gregory's College.
"I can also remember the cameras outside the school when I got back," he said.
Mark Gasnier and Justin Hodges were the toughest centres he played against. Tonie Carroll and Jason Taumalolo the toughest players, period.
Bryce Gibbs, Liam Fulton and Beau Ryan's antics at Tigers training sessions always bring a smile to his face. Most of the stories involving the ''three lunatics'' were not fit for a family newspaper, Lawrence said.
Only now, with his 250th game upon him, has Lawrence started to think about playing on in 2021. He won't play for anyone other than the Tigers. Nor will Marshall.
Lawrence maintains Marshall is the king.
“He can have a laugh, but with the flick of a switch he can be serious, and when he is you can hear a pin drop when he talks," Lawrence said.
"That's still the case to this day. For someone to have so much of an impact on the older and younger players, it's good to see. He's the heart and soul of the Tigers.
"And to play this milestone with someone like him, who has made me look good for so many years, is pretty special."
