Carlton star Patrick Cripps played with broken ribs, jaw

THE LEGEND of Patrick Cripps continues to grow after it was revealed he played for six weeks with broken ribs. And it’s not the only serious injury he has carried this year.

Carlton hard nut Patrick Cripps.

THE LEGEND of Patrick Cripps continues to grow after it was revealed he played for six weeks with broken ribs.

Cripps is out for the rest of the year with a broken leg suffered in the loss to Melbourne after a bruising season so far.

It was already known he had played on despite a crack in his jaw after being punched by Jordan Lewis, refusing to miss the next week.

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But Carlton chief executive Steven Trigg said Cripps had suffered rib damage earlier in the year and just kept playing.

It is understood he used painkilling injections to deaden the pain in his rib cartilage but never considered missing games.

The injury occurred in the first two weeks of the season, so at one stage Cripps was playing with broken ribs and a broken jaw.

“He is a hard young man. And we will miss him. We will miss his distribution in the middle of the ground and his midfield play and we will miss the example he sets as well,” Trigg said.

“Everyone knows he had a little hairline fracture in his jaw early in the season. But five or six weeks ago he took on some reasonably damage to his ribs as well.

“He put a guard on it, taped it up and every time I watched him over the last five or six weeks, he has that signature move with his hands over his head and dispatches the ball.

“And the opponents were ramming him as he takes the tackle into his torso. I am thinking: a hard unit.

“He is a competitive young man.”

Patrick Cripps cops a hammering against the Giants.

Asked on SEN Radio if Cripps’ ribs were broken, Trigg replied: “Let’s call them damaged ribs.”

Cripps, contracted until the end of 2019, told last week’s Sunday Herald Sun recently he was desperate to stay at the club to win a flag.

Amid a handful of staging complaints, the evidence from AFL players this year shows how tough they are.

Scott Pendlebury shielded rib damage in the first month of last season while Patrick Dangerfield broke ribs in this year’s clash against Hawthorn.

He continued on playing a more outside role but hardly missed a beat before soon returning to peak form.

Insiders say Nathan Fyfe’s bruised sternum caused him agonising pain and breathing difficulties, with the Brownlow medallist playing with a chest guard.

Only in the past two weeks has he returned to his best form, last week returning to the midfield against North Melbourne.