Stimpson: My eye sank down into my skull following epic Tuilagi collision
This article is written by Progressive Rugby
On Boxing Day morning, England and Leicester fullback Tim Stimpson staggered to the bathroom in his parent’s Wakefield home to find a gruesome sight staring back at him in the mirror.
Behind the angry swelling his right eye had sunk down into his skull.
The disfigurement was due to a shattered orbital floor that would need 24 hours of surgery and then a further 12 hours on the operating table to later remove the metal plates inserted to stabilise his face. Twenty years on he still has some metal left in his face from where the bone healed around it.
Stimpson had played just six minutes of the Christmas fixture when he was forced to race across to cut off a kick threaded through for onrushing Quins’ winger Dan Luger.
The freight train that is Freddie Tuilagi was also racing back and keen to let Luger know he was in for a bruising afternoon. But as Tuilagi flew in Luger took evasive action and he instead barrelled so hard into Stimpson’s cheekbone that it caused more than 20 facial fractures.
“I didn’t regain consciousness until I was off the pitch,” Stimpson said.
“One of the Harlequin’s medics felt around the socket and determined I was ok to go back on. I told them no way - I could hear Niagara Falls in my head, there was clearly a lot of blood.”
Stimpson, who won 19 caps for England, had extraordinary success with Leicester, winning four Premiership and two European titles during 1998 to 2003.
“At Leicester we prided ourselves on kicking the shit out of each other at training - and it worked too, we had a pretty awesome record,” Stimpson said.
“But the evidence we got it wrong is starting to mount, and I have numerous teammates suffering life changing consequences from repeated concussions including depression and memory loss.
“That’s something I find very difficult because I was Leicester’s elected player welfare rep at the time, and it feels like I let them down.”