“It was Friday night, my birthday, the club had just announced my new contract and I was sat in hospital thinking: why am I doing this for another 12 months?”

Warrington Wolves star Stefan Ratchford has given Love Rugby League the extraordinary details of last month’s horror injury that could have brought an end to his 17 years at the top of the British game.

It is not for the faint-hearted, and the multiple facial fractures – the result of an accidental clash with St Helens forward James Bell – have left the 36-year-old Wolves club captain unable to eat solid food for a month and having to sleep sitting up.

Incredibly, he could still be back playing in a month’s time.

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‘Straight away, I knew there was something wrong’
Ratchford has also lost over a stone in weight since undergoing surgery on facial injuries described by his consultant as some of the worst he has ever seen.

“‘The good news is you haven’t got a bleed on your brain. The bad news is that you have 10 facial fractures.’ They then found an 11th.”

The incident itself was pretty innocuous, but the damage could have meant game over for a man who had just penned a new one-year contract.