Pain game: Collingwood great Mick McGuane reveals he nearly died after a horror football injury

COLLINGWOOD hero Mick McGuane has gone into detail about the scary football injury that nearly ended his life.

MICK McGuane has revealed he nearly died after suffering a ruptured urethra that was dulled by a painkilling injection.

The Collingwood hero ignored the pain of the serious bladder issue for nearly a fortnight after the 1996 Anzac Day clash until being rushed to emergency surgery.

McGuane is famous for his 1994 clash against Adelaide at Victoria Park where a painkilling injection into his groin went wrong, leaving him unable to control his leg.

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But he said the more dangerous incident occurred two years later from an accidental knee to his groin.

McGuane often needed painkilling injections to play given long-running groin and abdominal injuries, but in 1996 it nearly backfired.

Mick McGuane in action for Collingwood.

“In that period from 1990-1996 I would hate to say how many injections I had,” he said.

“Probably anywhere between eight and 10 a year for six years.

“I didn’t make a habit of it because you did more damage when you were numb as hell.

“It made your recovery pretty ordinary for the following week, but I would hazard by Anzac Day I had been injected three times in the last game.

“I ended up rupturing my urethra. I got a jab (after being accidentally kneed) and I ended up p---ing blood.

“I didn’t know what it was and I was struggling to pass water. I got to the point where I was dribbling urine.”

The urethra carries fluid from the bladder through the penis, but McGuane believed his issue related to a longstanding problem with his lower abdominal wall.

“The Friday after the Anzac Day game we were scheduled to play St Kilda at the MCG and my dad turned up and I was really fidgety.

“He said what’s wrong and I said it was about the knock against Essendon.

“(Medico) Julian Feller tapped on my stomach (and) he got the urologist in at 1.30am and I was rushed to the hospital and they operated on me straight away.

“I had 1.5 litres of build-up of toxins inside me — if that had burst it would have been good night nurse.

McGuane never played again for Collingwood, but said he had no regrets about using pain assistance to play.

“I would do it all over again to play footy,” he said.

“You do anything ... footy is a drug and you want to be able to compete and be with your mates and win games of footy.”

McGuane’s most infamous moment — struggling to connect boot with football — came after an injection into his groin went wrong.

That needle would often be inserted either side of his testicles or on his pubic bone to allow him to play each week.

“The Adelaide game was the only bad experience considering the amount of jabs I had to play under at various stages,” he said.

“I had an issue with my lower abdominal wall and it caused a fair bit of discomfort.

“I was in a fair bit of discomfort and then I had an adductor tendon problem.

Mick McGuane in action.

Mick McGuane on the bench.

“Leigh (Matthews) was pretty adamant I had to do something on Friday to play and I had an injection to get me through training and then on match day the doctor jabbed me again.

“I don’t know what he gave me but it was strong — it was just one of those things where I had no co-ordination between my ball drop and my leg.

“It felt like I had a ton of bricks tied to (my leg).

By the warm-up McGuane knew something was badly wrong, but hoped the injection would quickly wear off.

“The next time I concentrated really hard on pulling my leg through and the ball still hit the ground. I was two from two.

“At halftime Ron Richards came to me and said the issue is the ball — we were alternating between the Faulkner and Sherrin back then.

“He said the Sherrin is heavier and drops quicker to ground. I said ‘Ron, you are an idiot’.

“By that stage I was furious and I had a crack at the doctor, but it was just one of those incidents.

“I look back at the numbers and I had 22 possessions at halftime and seven miskicks.

“My dad was in the crowd and the Collingwood supporters started to sledge me.

“Dad said to them, “Shut your bloody mouth before I shut it before you, there is nothing wrong with the kid”.