Australia cricket legend Mitchell Johnson revealed a gruesome injury which he picked up during a gym session gone horribly wrong.
For British cricket fans, to say Johnson is not well liked is an understatement – they positively loathe the fast blower. But regardless of how you feel about him, no one would wish upon him the injury that he sustained recently.
Johnson was doing a simple chin up routine but things went awry when he split open his head after he smashed in on a chin-up bar.
WARNING: This is pretty gruesome
The 36-year-old, who retired in 2015 from all forms of competition – only to come back out of retirement to compete in the Indian Premier League – split open the top of his head on a chin-up bar while training to stay fit.
Usually, most people who would sustain such an injury would understandably be in a state of shock and immediately take themselves to A&E. But in this day and age of social media Johnson thought it was only right to post it on his Instagram page.
In his post, Johnson wrote:
If you don’t like blood & cuts then don’t look through these pics! Not the best thing I’ve ever done to myself but I’m am fine #toohardtoexplain #dontfightchinupbar #stilldontknowhowitspossible #18.3grrrrr #baldspot
After posting the tear-inducing picture on Instagram he was immediately rushed to a hospital where he required 16 stitches to his scalp. While he has made a full recovery it has left him with a small bald patch, a tiny price to pay for a clean bill health, I suppose.
I’m pretty sure there are some, cricket fans out there (i.e. English, South African, Indian, Pakistani…) who have taken a bit of glee in Johnson’s gruesome gym injury. During the 2013-2014 Ashes, he was the scourge of the English side as he was named ‘Player of the Series’, took a 37-wicket haul and was awarded Man of the Match in three of the five Tests.
He is also the quickest bowler to reach 150 wickets in Test cricket in two years and 139 days since his debut.
In all he snagged a total of 239 wickets in 153 ODIs playing for Australia, including three five-wicket hauls.
Johnson has played 73 Tests for Australia and picked up 313 wickets, including an impressive 12 five-wicket hauls and three 10-wicket hauls.
While injuries picked up in the gym aren’t anything new, a survey this year revealed that more than half of Britain’s fitness fanatics are baffled about what to do in the gym.
A study by Nuffield Health spoke to 2,000 adults and revealed that a fifth of gym-goers have no idea how to use gym machinery – chest-press machines, stair-climbers and even treadmills leave many adults feeling intimidated, with as many as 23 per cent finding themselves too embarrassed to use the equipment.
Unlike old Mitch!
