Warrington Wolves star left unable to eat and sleep after revealing details of gruesome injury

“It was Friday night, my birthday, the club had just announced my new contract and I was sat in hospital thinking: why am I doing this for another 12 months?”

Warrington Wolves star Stefan Ratchford has given Love Rugby League the extraordinary details of last month’s horror injury that could have brought an end to his 17 years at the top of the British game.

It is not for the faint-hearted, and the multiple facial fractures – the result of an accidental clash with St Helens forward James Bell – have left the 36-year-old Wolves club captain unable to eat solid food for a month and having to sleep sitting up.

Incredibly, he could still be back playing in a month’s time.

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‘Straight away, I knew there was something wrong’

Ratchford has also lost over a stone in weight since undergoing surgery on facial injuries described by his consultant as some of the worst he has ever seen.

“The specialist said, ‘I’ve got good news and bad news’,” Ratchford told Love Rugby League.

“‘The good news is you haven’t got a bleed on your brain. The bad news is that you have 10 facial fractures.’ They then found an 11th.”

The incident itself was pretty innocuous, but the damage could have meant game over for a man who had just penned a new one-year contract.

“It was just a freak accident,” said Ratchford. “As I’ve gone into the tackle, James has tried to spin out of it and caught me flush on my cheekbone with his elbow. He messaged me the next morning to reach out and apologise which was a nice touch, but he didn’t need to.

“Straight away, I knew there was something wrong, because my back teeth and bottom teeth were touching on one side but there was a gap everywhere else.

“I could feel my gum shield touching my teeth and I was expecting to take my gum shield out and all my teeth to come with it. Our doctor told me my jaw or cheekbone had gone, but it was unlikely to be both.”

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‘It wasn’t a fun couple of days after the operation’

Ratchford was taken to Aintree hospital after half-time of Warrington’s 24-10 victory at the Totally Wicked Stadium, learning of the severity of his condition following scans.

“They were debating about operating there and then. They wanted to keep me in the hospital but I was still in my Warrington kit with blood all over my face, so I wanted to go home and shower.

“Usually the club would use its private medical, but this was a specialist NHS facial unit and they were absolutely unbelievable.”

Ratchford’s return home was short-lived after an urgent phonecall the next day brought him straight back for immediate surgery, the kind of which few of us could even contemplate. Or indeed want to.

“It turns out I had done all my eye socket, my cheekbone was depressed with three fractures in there, upper jaw, lower jaw and there are also a few bones between your nose and teeth which had all cracked, as well as across my face.

“The surgery on the cheekbone had to go in through my mouth to put a plate in my cheekbone. The other option I was given was to fix my eye socket by cutting me open from one ear across the top of my head to my other ear, peeling my scalp down and inserting a plate that way. I said, ‘I don’t want to have that done!’

“When they cut open my mouth they actually found another fracture in the roof of my mouth so a plate went in there too, and then finally he went in through my eye to pop my cheekbone back out and plate that.

“Basically I have had bars with wires through my teeth and into my gums and all sorts to realign my jaw. The only time I could take those bands off was to brush my teeth so the first few days were entertaining every time I tried to do that.

“It wasn’t a fun couple of days after the operation.”

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‘Do you not think this is time to retire?’

Ratchford, who has played over 450 times for Warrington, Salford and England reveals the operation left him unable to sleep or eat.

“I couldn’t lie down as I could feel a load of pressure into my head so I perched myself up in the corner of the couch and tried to get a bit of sleep that way but it was an hour or two at a time through the night.

“It’s now been four weeks since my operation and everything has been a liquid diet since. Soup, smoothies, yoghurt is all I have been eating. I refuse to get on the scales because I’m scared but looking at myself I guess I have lost about a stone.”

And it is the physical condition lost since surgery that has provided the biggest obstacle in recovery, with the broken bones already now well on the mend.

“I don’t think the fractures are far off healing but I need to get some weight back on and get myself in a physical condition to play Super League again,” he added.

“I haven’t lifted a weight for four weeks and done no fitness which is the longest I have ever done without any exercise. I still can’t chew proper food so it is just soft food like lasagna or risotto – it is not the most fascinating of diets.

“I saw my mum the next morning and she said, ‘do you not think this is time to retire?’

“But since the operation, I have just wanted to get back playing as quickly as possible. I won’t be coming back wearing a mask like Kylian Mbappe either – could you imagine the abuse I’d get?!”

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