Ryan Papenhuyzen of Melbourne suffered a catastrophic leg injury in the Storm’s NRL finals loss to Brisbane.
After suffering another catastrophic leg injury, Melbourne great Ryan Papenhuyzen was brought off the field on a medicab in the closing seconds of the Storm’s 26-0 finals loss to Brisbane.
Papenhuyzen was caught in a difficult position while making a tackle with teammate Nelson Asofa-Solomona with just over seven minutes remaining.
Play was stopped for several minutes while medics treated to Papenhuyzen, who later suffered a serious broken ankle after being twisted under Asofa-Solomona.
“He’s been admitted to the hospital.” I haven’t seen him, but Frank (Ponissi) reported that he was in a lot of discomfort. “It’s not great,” Storm coach Craig Bellamy said.
“I can’t imagine how he’s feeling right now.” He worked hard to get back into the NRL team after putting in so much effort to play again.
Papenhuyzen uploaded a photo from the hospital on Instagram late last night with the caption, “We go again, love ya.”
It’s a devastating setback for the 25-year-old, who was only three matches into his comeback from a shattered kneecap that had kept him out for more than a year.
He sobbed as he walked away from the field.
“I feel bad for him. It isn’t good news. “He just got back and this happens to him,” Storm five-eighth Cameron Munster said.
“This is heartbreaking news for him and the club.” We’ll be there with him tonight to make sure he’s okay.”
Another lengthy recuperation period awaits Papenhuyzen, who was airlifted to the hospital.
“That was tough scenes to be on the field, hearing how much pain he was in, we were thinking of him straight away,” Brisbane halfback Adam Reynolds said.
“I don’t know the extent of the leg injury, but it looked pretty serious.”
The Storm were completely outgunned by Brisbane, who won their first home game against them since 2009.
“Our first half was really poor; we’d done well to be 8-0 at halftime, it could have been 20-0 at halftime,” Bellamy went on to say.
“I’m not sure how we’re going to enter this game and play like that.”
“We just looked like 17 players thrown together on the night and ‘good luck’.”
“Our attack’s been humming along OK, but tonight it looked like they just met each other in the dressing room before the game.”
In a knockout semifinal next weekend, Melbourne will face the winner of the Sydney Roosters and Cronulla.
