EXCLUSIVE: Toughest man in sport! Wood reflects on what else was lost on Grand Final day

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UPDATED:

21:30 GMT, 8 October 2012

From the London Olympics to the Ryder Cup, a golden year for British sport has produced so many emotional moments that grown men have been crying like never before.

Surely no story has brought a tear to the eye quite so quickly as that of Paul Wood, however.

The second half of Saturday’s rugby league Grand Final between Warrington Wolves and Leeds Rhinos had just kicked off when Wood, the Warrington prop, was tackled by Kallum Watkins.

Ouch: Paul Wood (left) underwent surgery on Sunday but by Monday even joked about his injury on Twitter

The Leeds player accidentally brought
his knee up into Wood’s groin, rupturing his right testicle.
Astonishingly, Wood not only got up but played on for more than 20
minutes.

Even then, as he sat on the bench at
Old Trafford, his injured testicle swelling ‘to the size of a tennis
ball’, the strapping 30-year-old forward was prepared to come back on
and help his team.

In an age when some overpaid
footballers roll around on the pitch after the slightest contact and
have been known to return to the touchline moments after being carried
off on a stretcher, Wood’s courage puts them all to shame.

One of several lighthearted tweets he sent after having the testicle removed on Saturday night ended with #takeonefortheteam.

Sitting at home in Wigan on Monday
with his wife Shelley, son George, four, and 18-month-old daughter
Darcey, Wood seemed remarkably unfazed by the drama.

He had to miss the post-match party
back at Warrington’s stadium and Mad Monday, the traditional drinking
session when Super League players let their hair down at the end of the
season, but he is looking forward to seeing his team-mates again on
Thursday.

'I know they'll be taking the
mickey,' said Wood. 'Even when I was in hospital on Saturday night they
were sending me texts saying, “You worked your b***s off tonight!” Lucky
I’ve got a sense of humour.

Balls up: Wood was happy to reflect on his injury with wife Shelley and children Darcey and George

'I've been hit a few times in the groin area and normally you can run it off but this just got worse.

'The physios kept asking me if I wanted to go off but I said, “No I’m fine, I’ll get through it”. I came off after 25 minutes and that’s when it started getting really bad. It swelled up to the size of a tennis ball.

'The doctors knew I’d taken a whack
but I didn’t really tell them. There was 15 minutes of the game left so I
thought there was a chance I might get back on.

'It would have been difficult but
you’ve just got to do what you’ve got to do. It’s the Grand Final, the
biggest thing in rugby league, and I wanted us to have a chance of
winning.'

Warrington could not prevent
champions Leeds retaining their title, and when Wood revealed the extent
of his injury to the team doctor at the end, he was rushed to Hope
Hospital in Salford for emergency surgery.

'I thought they might have to take it
out because I was in a lot of pain, mainly in my stomach, not my
testicles,' added Wood who, perhaps appropriately, has 13 warriors
tattooed on his left calf to commemorate the first of his two Challenge
Cup final wins with Warrington in 2010.

'When they had a look inside they
said there was no blood flow to it at all, so it was basically just dead
tissue. It doesn’t affect anything else because you can have one
testicle and be perfectly fine. If it was a case of needing two I would
have been devastated.'

More pain: To make matters worse, Wood was unable to prevent Leeds Rhinos storming to victory

Shelley would like more children and although Paul is not so sure, he intends to wear a protective cup in future just in case.

'I'll definitely be protecting my
other one now,' he said. 'I've never worn a cup before, so it’s just
whether I can find one that’s comfortable to play in.

'I’ve been playing 13 years and not a
pre-season goes by when I don’t have an operation. I had a back op for a
prolapsed disc last year, I’ve had four on my dislocated right
shoulder, hernia op, broken my left leg, done my knee and ankle
ligaments and broke my nose against Hull a few weeks back – but you
don’t expect to lose a testicle.'

Just a few miles away in Wigan
yesterday, Super League’s newly-crowned ‘Man of Steel’ Sam Tomkins was
attending an event organised by Heinz in aid of Joining Jack, a charity
dedicated to finding a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

Even by rugby league standards, Tomkins admitted Wood had gone above and beyond the call of duty.

'It makes your eyes water just
thinking about it,' said Tomkins. 'That shows how tough rugby league
players are. They play on with some bad injuries but I’m sure there’s
not many more painful than that.'