Like this, only worse...much, much worse.
It’s stories like this one that make me sorta glad I’m not in any way athletically-inclined as to be a professional athlete. Not that rugby would have been my sport of choice, but really, this horrific injury could have occurred in just about any sport, save badminton, chess or ballroom dancing.
Rugby is huge in England, and from what I’ve seen, quite violent. Full-speed, open field tackles are commonplace, but for all it’s violent tendencies, rugby is a fairly honorable sport. That is, until someone goes all “North American” and starts gouging eyes out.
Which is exactly what happened to one Clarence Harding, rugby player, blues guitarist, and now, half-blind bastard. During a match between Harding’s Gravesend rugby club and their rivals, Maidstone, when Harding felt something oddly digit like in his right eye during play.
“It was over in an instant but it dawned on me very quickly that something pretty serious had happened. The ball was nowhere near my head at the time.”
Surgeons tried vainly to save Harding’s vision, but the optic nerve was severed and the blues-loving rugby player ended up losing the sight in the injured eye. This of course leads to a police investigation into allegations of grievous bodily harm…because moments of extreme violence in an extremely violent sport need to be taken to court.
Whatever. I’m sure the offender will come forward, the league will kick his ass out forever, and the courts will be tied up with yet another frivolous lawsuit debating whether the law should be involved in matters pertaining to violence in sporting events.
Either way, Clarence Harding is still blind in one eye thanks to an opponents dirty tactic–which, for him, sucks balls.
