fLIP
UFO Hunter
Joey's MRI
TO most people this looks just like any old X-ray.
But to Andrew Johns, it was the difference between walking away from rugby league or risking life in a wheelchair.
Johns agreed to release the scan to The Daily Telegraph yesterday.
It shows a large bulging disc putting pressure on the spinal cord in his neck.
What is not evident to most people though is just how close this degenerate disc is to severing his spinal cord and rendering Johns a paraplegic or quadriplegic.
Because the disc is already pressing on the spinal cord, even a millimetre of movement would have given Johns significant pain and weakness in his limbs.
And even worse, if the disc had protruded another centimetre it would have resulted in the potentially "catastrophic" injury that shocked Knights specialist Neil Halpin – and led to Johns' retirement.
TO most people this looks just like any old X-ray.
But to Andrew Johns, it was the difference between walking away from rugby league or risking life in a wheelchair.
Johns agreed to release the scan to The Daily Telegraph yesterday.
It shows a large bulging disc putting pressure on the spinal cord in his neck.
What is not evident to most people though is just how close this degenerate disc is to severing his spinal cord and rendering Johns a paraplegic or quadriplegic.
Because the disc is already pressing on the spinal cord, even a millimetre of movement would have given Johns significant pain and weakness in his limbs.
And even worse, if the disc had protruded another centimetre it would have resulted in the potentially "catastrophic" injury that shocked Knights specialist Neil Halpin – and led to Johns' retirement.
