How Kyle Hardie forged a new rugby league path in the wake of horror injury

He may have arrived at the hospital in his Wests Devils playing kit, but this couldn't have been a mere footy injury, short of someone driving a station wagon onto the paddock.

Turns out it was just rotten fortune that saw an early try in a big win over Corrimal last July turn to more than a career-ending injury, but one that left him unable to roll out of bed without help.

Not that he knew it when he first heard the disconcerting "pop" as he twisted to score a try from close range at Ziems Park, and left a large chunk of his leg behind.

"We started off the game pretty well, I actually ended up hitting a bloke off the kickoff and he dropped the ball, so we got the ball straight away," Hardie recalls.

"The following set I got a short ball on the try-line and as I was crashing over to score, my knee dug into the turf as I was getting hit from the side.

"I actually heard the pop when it happened and I thought it was my knee because obviously I felt my knee hit the turf. But as I've tried to roll over and straighten out my legs, I've realised that my leg is stuck at 45-degree angle.

"Being a physio I kind of put two and two together and thought that the pop was actually my hip popping out.

"Surprisingly enough, the pain actually wasn't too bad at the start. After about 10-15 minutes of it being out and eventually getting lifted off to the sideline, the pain started to increase quite a bit.

"I ended up getting on the green whistle in the ambo and got transported to Wollongong Hospital."

A physio by trade, the 25-year-old knew he'd done himself a fair mischief, but it was only on arrival at the ED that he learned the true extent of it.

"In emergency as I hopped on the scanner, all the nurses were chatting away and then they abruptly stopped chatting," Hardie said.

"I asked 'is my hip dislocated?' and they all looked around at each other and went 'ah, you've actually fractured it as well'. As my hip came out, it actually split the socket into two halves like an eggshell.

"I kind of had an idea it was dislocated, but you think that's about it. When they said it's fractured as well, I asked them if it happened very often and they said 'no, it's a very rare thing'.

"The doctors told me that the only time they really see that kind of injury is if someone falls from quite a large height or is in a car crash with their feet on the dash.

"They were pretty shocked that I did it playing football."

What happened next is not a story for the easily squeamish.

"I had had to have two operations for it," Hardie said.

"The first one put my hip back in and then, because it still had the fracture, they put a metal rod through my knee with sandbags over the edge of the bed to keep my leg in place.

"That was Saturday night and then Sunday I was transferred up to St George Hospital for another operation where they had to re-dislocate my hip and then put some screws in to fix the fracture.

"It sounds pretty bad, but they originally thought I was going to need a hip replacement at 25, so it actually didn't turn out as bad as I initially thought.

"My thoughts on the field were 'if it's what I think it is, I might have to retire'. Then obviously you start hearing the actual extent of what's happened and it goes from can I play footy again to 'can I actually walk again?'

"I started thinking I'd be happy if I could just run again."

That seemed a somewhat forlorn hope when he was left bed-ridden by the operations that involved shifting around his not insignificant quad muscles just to get at his hip.

"Since I was quite a fit football player and had some muscly quads, they actually had to move my quad quite a bit to actually get to my hip," Hardy said.

"I thought 'ok, a little bit of reduced strength is kind of normal for this kind of thing' but it was actually that bad in the first four weeks I physically could not lift my own leg to get out of bed.

"I'd gone from this person that's doing everything by themselves to needing help to just even roll out of bed and doing your basic things like having a shower. That was extremely difficult.

"As a footy player you kind of expect physical injuries, but the mental side of it was definitely a bit of a tough adjustment. My fiance Ashlee had to basically work her jobs as well as looking after a 25-year-old man for a couple of months.

"It was obviously challenging for me, but I can't imagine the amount out of stress and workload, she had to go through to just provide for the family while I couldn't work.

"She's definitely the rock that got me through. Physically it was challenging, but the mental side of it was definitely more difficult."

While footy was ultimately the least of his worries, contemplating a future without it was tough at just 25. While he wasn't chasing an NRL future, losing the game entirely was a scary prospect.

"In terms of not playing again, I surprisingly came to terms with that pretty well, but it's the social aspect of it that's a bit tough," he said.

"At the back end of the year I started to rock up to a few games, first grade was in the finals and reserve grade ended up winning it.

"As much as I was happy for them, it was also a bit tough being on the sidelines thinking 'I should've been out there'.

"To its credit, the club's (Wests) always kept in contact with me. They're were always checking in and always making me feel welcome [back].

"The adjustment's tough but they're making it a lot easier."

As it turned out, it was the Wests connection that ensured he wasn't entirely lost to the game.

Coming through the Devils ranks, Hardie had played under club stalwart Aaron Hertsch who now happens to be the coach of St George Illawarra's Jersey Flegg side.

It saw Hardie, still hobbling along the rehab path last last year, receive a call "out of the blue" from Hertsch with a question - ever thought of coaching?

"When I first came into grade at Wests Hertschy was actually one of my coaches and was still playing a little bit as well," Hardy said.

"He was captain-coaching my first couple of years in grade and he was checking in to see how my rehab was doing and then he asked 'would you be interested in coaching?'

"I know he's been helping out with the kids at Wests and coaching the [under] 15s, so I thought it was going to be for that. It turned out it was for the Dragons Jersey Flegg, so I've gone from no coaching experience at all to a pretty high level.

"There's no easing my way into it, but it's been really enjoyable. Having only recently played myself, I can provide pretty good insights there.

"Obviously Flegg's that first step into a professional environment and, considering I'm only five years older than most of them as well, I think that helps me relate to a lot of the boys."

Not to mention the fact few lead assistant's are also fully qualified physios.

"When I first told the rest of the coaching staff that I was a physio and assistant coach, they kind of looked at me like 'oh, are you trying to take all our jobs?' but it's pretty handy," Hardie said.

"On game days I'm the blue-shirt (trainer) so I'm running the messages out and if someone gets injured they don't always have to rely on the team doctor or I can relay some information.

"It helps out everyone and makes everyone's jobs pretty easy."

It's early days in the coaching caper, but the flip-side to retiring young as a player is the early start as a coach, provided he can shake off the nagging urge to one day strap the boots back on.

"Every now and then when you're watching, or even when I'm running out there with the boys, you get a little bit of an itch, but I'm pretty comfortable with not playing," Hardie said.

"I'm nine months down the track now, I only recently started running again in March, so that's how long it took me to get back to running.

"It's probably going to be 12-18 months before it feels normal again so it's been a long road and there's still a bit of a long road to go.

"Ask me again in 12 months it might be a different answer, but I'm definitely enjoying the coaching role.

"It's definitely a different path than I expected for myself, but I'm thoroughly enjoying it and I think there's definitely some good opportunities down the road.

"I'm pretty young to be a coach, so I'm starting early and maybe in a couple of years I can go to some higher levels if I keep at it."