‘I felt the bone was across my face’: Gruesome details emerge as Dolphins duo overcome injuries to stun ladder leaders

Kurt Donoghoe played on with a broken nose to help the Dolphins stun the Bulldogs, while it turns out a teammate spent two nights in hospital this week.

They’ve relied on attacking brilliance to get them wins in the past, but Thursday’s victory over the ladder-leading Bulldogs was one of the toughest of all time by the Dolphins with two players overcoming nasty injuries to get them over the line.

Kurt Donoghoe’s broken nose in the first half was the most graphic, but it emerged after the game that star centre Herbie Farnworth spent two nights in hospital and only landed in Sydney on Thursday afternoon.

The Englishman noticed something was wrong early in the week when he had to cancel a massage, with Farnworth requiring two different types of intravenous drips to fix a leg infection.

Herbie Farnworth spent two nights in hospital but decided to play despite landing in Sydney hours before Thursday’s game. Picture: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

“I got a bit of a bug in a cut and then sort of fell a bit crook,” he said, revealing he had just about given up the thought of playing on Wednesday night.

“I got home and I had a massage booked and I was a bit crook and had to cancel it. I knew I was crook if I had to cancel my massage and then made the call with the club to go to hospital and go on the IV and I didn’t really take to the IVs too well.

“It was a different strain of what they thought I had, so it wasn’t effective.

“And then they put me on the second one just as I was leaving the hospital, and they told me to go back in because the results came back and it wasn’t effective. That was a bit of a nightmare.

“It kind of went a bit downhill from there, and I managed to get better this morning and then came out of hospital and flew out (of Brisbane) at midday (on Thursday).”

Kurt Donoghoe broke his nose in the opening 10 minutes but returned to help the Dolphins beat the Bulldogs. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

While only his teammates knew about the hospital visit, the world could see what was wrong with Donoghoe after he was left reeling on the ground following a collision with Toby Sexton.

The back-up hooker was forced to come off after nine minutes with reports he was ruled out of the contest with a broken nose, but the club’s doctor worked his magic and Donoghoe was soon back on the sideline ready to come back on.

Both he and Farnworth scored tries in the thumping win, with Donoghoe bleeding profusely and unable to breathe properly through his nose for the rest of the night.

“I just remember going hard for a tackle, I reeled out of it, I put my hand on my face and I couldn’t feel my nose,” he said.

“I felt the bone was across my face.

“I’ve never broken my nose. I was a bit nervous. I didn’t really know what was going to happen. The doc did a good job putting it back in.

Donoghoe came back on and scored a late try. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

“I didn’t see (the big-screen TV). I didn’t really want to look in the mirror when I came back in.

“He took his time because he was also trying to do the HIA test. I just told him to hurry up and put it back in because I didn’t want to wait any longer.

“It went back in pretty well, but I heard a couple of cracks. It was pretty painful.

“When I walked to the sheds, I thought I was done for the night. When I sat back down, I realised people had gone through a lot worse and played through a lot worse. I thought it wasn’t that big a deal.

“It kept bleeding the whole game, and I was breathing out of my mouth the whole time. It’s pretty blocked now. It’s still bleeding, but nothing is coming out of it.”

Any thoughts of a modelling career have been put on hold, with Donoghoe hoping his nose straightens itself out considering his relationship status.

“Unfortunately not,” he replied when asked if he had a partner.

“I’ll need to find one quickly.”