Injured Hodgson's pure courage

[yeenar69]

Injured Hodgson's pure courage
By Barry Toohey

June 07, 2007 12:00

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TIM Sheens has never once questioned the courage of his captain Brett Hodgson.

But even the Wests Tigers coach was in awe yesterday after X-rays revealed Hodgson played for almost 20 minutes on Monday night against Parramatta with multiple fractures to his eye socket.

A devastated Hodgson will have surgery next Tuesday to repair the damage from a sickening second-half head clash with Eels hooker PJ Marsh and faces a two-month stint on the sideline.

"It's not great news – it's quite devastating to be honest," Hodgson said.

"When it happened, I knew there was a bit of an issue there. The eye started to close up pretty quickly but I didn't know how bad it was. I never really considered coming off because of it."

After vomiting several times after the game from the effects of the concussion, Hodgson spent Monday night in hospital on a drip.

But worse was to come with the X-rays revealing the extent of the injury.

"They're saying it's an eight-week injury at the minimum, which is a real blow," Hodgson said. "We haven't been setting the world on fire but things had been going pretty good up until Monday night."

Disappointed to have lost another key player to injury, Sheens last night called on the rest of his squad to show the sort of courage Hodgson displayed against the Eels.

"If we can't get some courage and inspiration from Brett, then there is something wrong," Sheens said.

"There's multiple fractures there and we won't have him now for the next eight weeks but he wasn't coming off the other night.

"Even though the game was gone on the scoreboard, he stayed out there.

"He threw the last pass for our try after the head clash and made front-on tackles.

"It was a special effort.

"I'll be calling on the rest of my players to follow his lead.

"We have got eight weeks now to work without him."

Sheens fears a similar injury run to the one that cruelled his side's top-eight chances last season may be striking the Tigers again.

"Marshall's already gone and now Hodgson – it's a real blow for us,"he said.

"We lost him (Hodgson) last year and along with the other injuries we had, it contributed to us missing the semi-finals.

"We just need everyone to really lift for us."

[Willis 21]

Good on ya Hodgo....