Rugby can be best described as British hockey because for as entertaining as it can be to watch, the fans can often ruin the experience with their innate desire to prove just how much tougher the players are in their sport compared to those in others. It certainly doesn’t help that rugby players are some of the most masochistic human beings when it comes to on-field medical procedures, like what Hull FC forward Joe Westerman did on Thursday.
Westerman gave every viewer—from those at the stadium to those in the broadcast booth—a bit of a shock when, after getting tackled, he was seen slapping at his knee while grimacing. A closer look showed that the player’s kneecap was dislocated and he was smacking it back into place because his team was out of substitutes for the game. Westerman then got up to walk off the pain for a short while before joining in on the scrum that took place right after.
Here it is again in slow-motion and zoomed in a lot more.
In yet another piece of evidence to prove that professional rugby players are built differently than you and me, Hull FC coach Lee Radford said after the game, “He does that every fortnight. It has genuinely come out on numerous occasions—he needs some ligaments in there somewhere.”
Unfortunately, Westerman’s quick knee adjustment was not enough to secure the win for his team, who fell 18-10 to Hull Kingston Rovers to fall 2-1 in the two teams’ rivalry series.