He had a hole in his head the size of golf ball and was told his season was over, but three metal plates and 11 weeks later Tim Browne is preparing for a grand final.
Browne, 26, was rushed to hospital after suffering a depressed skull fracture against the Wests Tigers at ANZ Stadium in July, but he returned to that ground last Saturday to help Canterbury progress to their second grand final in three years. By the time the swelling went down almost two weeks after suffering the injury, the prop underwent surgery and had his face pulled down for surgeons to insert three metal plates into his forehead.
"It was about as big as a golf ball above my left eye," Browne said of the fracture. "It's good you can't see anything now. We've taken the hairline and cut it from one ear to the other and hid the scars there otherwise it would have been too visible. They pulled my face down and put three plates across.
"We had to wait for the swelling to go down before we could do anything. That took about a week and a half. At the time they said that was basically my season. I rang [the surgeon] last week and he said he was playing it conservative for me and he said I'm pretty happy for you to play this week as long as I wear a headgear."
Browne suffered the injury after making contact with teammate Dale Finucane in the round-19 thrashing at the hands of the Wests Tigers. "I think it was the palm of his hand or his elbow, I'm not too sure," Browne said.
"At the time I touched my nose and there wasn't any blood and I wasn't concussed, so I thought I was all right. I did a couple more tackles and the physio ran out and said 'look, you have to come off, you've got a hole in your head'. It was quite visible, so I had an ultrasound straight away on the sideline and it was a clear break, so they rushed me off to hospital. There's two layers of the skull, so they had to make sure that it didn't affect the second layer, which was good because that eliminated the brain bleeding and so forth. Then I went from there with the specialist and got it operated on as soon as the swelling went down."
Given Canterbury won two of their last eight games of the season, it looked as though Browne's season was over. But after their win against Melbourne in the opening weekend of the finals, a return to the paddock this year suddenly seemed like a realistic goal. Browne was a shock inclusion in the Canterbury team against Penrith in the preliminary final on Saturday night, getting the nod ahead of utility Reni Maitua.
"I've been pestering them for the last couple of weeks to play and [the doctor] said last week that I would be minimal risk but the week after I would be no risk, that's when I got the all clear," Browne said. "Maybe about two weeks ago [I thought about playing]. I've been ringing [the doctor] every day for a couple of weeks, so I think he hates me. I've been doing a lot of fitness with Tony Grimaldi our fitness coach, so it was good to get some minutes today. We found out Monday [that I was cleared], and I spoke to Des [Hasler] on Tuesday. He said 'I'm thinking about playing you' but he didn't give too much away . I had to get through a few fitness tests to make sure I was OK with contact and what not, and here I am."
