CATALANS DRAGONS and France national captain Ben Garcia almost lost an ear playing Rugby League last season and now he’s revealed he almost lost an arm.
The 29-year-old loose-forward injured his elbow in the opening game of the World Cup and the wound became so badly infected that doctors had to issue emergency levels of antibiotics.
MRSA infections are common from sports injuries but they normally respond to initial treatment. However, Garcia needed two months of hospital attention and debilitating amounts of drugs to cure the problem.
If allowed to develop, the superbug MRSA can induce pneumonia and other life-threatening conditions and there is the potential risk of limb amputation should the condition worsen and mutate.
“I nearly lost an ear this year. I didn’t want to lose an arm too, but thankfully things didn’t get to that stage,” said Garcia.
“But I’ve never felt so ill; I’ve had surgery on broken arms before but nothing felt like this.”
Garcia released a graphic picture of his arm showing a deep hole where the infection took hold, similar to a hospital image shown earlier this year when he had 40 stitches to re-attach his right ear after it became partially severed (twice) while playing in Super League.
“I haven’t had much luck this year, what with my ear and now my arm, but luckily it’s all healed now,” Garcia told League Express.
“I cut my arm at the elbow during the first game for France against Greece; it was only a little cut but it got infected and it went really bad; the pain was incredible.
“It probably wasn’t the best idea, but I continued to play with it and not surprisingly it got worse and worse.”
The injury was sustained at Doncaster’s Eco-Power Stadium, which has a mixed plastic and grass surface. But although a number of MRSA infections have been linked to cuts and burns on artificial turf, Garcia refuses to blame the pitch.
“It was not about the plastic pitches, it was from a scratch like we get during every game, but the infection was terrible and the amount of drugs I had to take made me very fatigued.
“I had to take masses of antibiotics and I had so much medication that I ended up with problems with my stomach and this continued until well after the World Cup.
“I needed two months of treatment and hospital attention. It sounds a little dramatic thinking that a little cut could cause such a problem but at one stage doctors were seriously concerned about the consequences of the infection.”
Dragons’ coach Steve McNamara added, “I have to say that all of our French internationals received the very best of care and attention while they were taking part in the World Cup and they returned in excellent condition.
“But Ben got a really nasty arm infection in the UK. He probably shouldn’t have played against England but that’s the nature of him, he is such a competitor that nobody would have stopped him.
“He’s had continuous treatment with antibiotics and different methods to flush the infection fully out of his system; he’s had it really tough for a few weeks after the World Cup but he’s on the mend.
“He has really suffered from the infection and the intensity of the treatment, which has drained him, so we’ve given him the extra time to recover. Our French internationals rejoined the playing group before Christmas but Ben will return this week alongside our England, Tonga and Samoa representatives.”
Catalans will resume training today (Monday, January 2) before a week-long training camp in Spain and a pre-season game on 4th February against a Select 17 side made up of French players in the Elite One Championship.
Meanwhile, Dragons’ President Bernard Guasch told Perpignan media to expect two further signings before Super League starts next month.
The Dragons’ owner is hoping to recruit an additional centre and prop forward following the departure of 13 players from last season’s first-team squad and the signing of just five new players so far: Tom Johnstone, Manu Ma’u, Adam Keighran, Romain Navarrete and Sio Siua Taukeiaho.
Catalans have two quota spots available and club General Manager Alex Chan is understood to be in advanced negotiations with further potential recruits at Stade Gilbert Brutus.
