Sports
G4D Open: Wales’ Richie Willis takes on world’s best at Celtic Manor
Willis’ “worst injury”, it turned out, was a lacerated liver.
“I didn’t realise they had me on the table and they had 40 pints of blood to keep me going,” he says.
“They came to me afterwards and said they had given me a 10% chance [of living]. They said ‘obviously you wanted to live and that’s why you are still here’.”
Willis, who was 42 at the time of his accident, spent five months in hospital.
Yet barely a year after he was allowed home, he was back holding a golf club.
Willis, from Ringland, Newport, had originally taken up the sport at the age of 35, having retired from a semi-professional football career which included a stint at Newport County AFC during their spell playing over the border in Moreton-in-Marsh.
Willis’ golf handicap was 11 before his accident. Remarkably, he now plays off six.
“I am really proud of that,” he says with a smile.
“Golf has meant everything to me. I said if I ever got injured and I couldn’t play sport, I wouldn’t really want to be here.
“Golf means I have been able to compete, playing sport with friends and keeping fit to a degree. It’s great for my wellbeing as well.”
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England flanker Sam Underhill will miss the Nations Championship this autumn after rupturing his bicep in Bath’s opening Prem game away at Harlequins.
Underhill went off in the 48th minute of the win at The Stoop and was seen at the end of the game with strapping around his arm, which will require surgery later this week.
Bath expect the 30-year-old to be out until December or January, meaning he will miss a large portion of the domestic season as well as England’s three internationals against Australia, Japan and New Zealand in November.
Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan said he knew straight away the injury was serious, which was why he went immediately over to Underhill when he came off the pitch.
“There are a few types of injuries where I just want to know straight away because I know the impact that it has longer term and I always feel for the players, so that’s why I went straight down,” Van Graan told BBC Radio Somerset.
“At the time I thought, we need to wait for a scan but this could be a biceps rupture. The scan turned out to be exactly that.
“He will get operated on on Thursday, that’s a few months out of the game – not ideal from Sam’s point of view.”
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