Injuries are a part of sports and can range from minor to horrific. Anyone who recalls Joe Theismann's leg being snapped during a tackle by Lawrence Taylor in a 1985 NFL game qualifies as gruesome.
But Akil Mitchell's injury seemed just as serious, and just as gruesome — the professional basketball player's left eye popped out of its socket during a game Thursday. Mitchell, a former University of Virginia star, was playing for the New Zealand Breakers in an Australian NBL match against Cairns when the incident occurred, CNN reported.
Mitchell fell to the floor early in the final quarter after a poke to the face while contesting a rebound with Taipans center Nnanna Egwu. Fortunately for the 24-year-old, the injury during the Breakers' 94-81 loss in Auckland, New Zealand, was not career-ending, club general manager Dillon Boucher told ESPN.
"My eye was out of my head — it was a little painful," Mitchell said in a Facebook Live interview posted by the Breakers the next day.
"I felt like I just got poked in the eye so I opened my eye and I'm looking up and I can see everything, my eye's still moving, but it's kind of out.
"I don't know if it was the most painful thing I've ever felt, but it was just weird. Just a weird sensation, a weird feeling."
Mitchell said his vision has been unaffected, admitting that "everything felt pretty normal" a few hours after his injury.
In fact, the doctors didn't even believe what had happened when he arrived at the hospital; the eyeball had since moved back into its socket in the ambulance, CNN reported.
"After maybe five or 10 minutes it kind of felt like it was moving back into place," Mitchell said. "And then in the ambulance on the way over when I was high on the gas ... I just had this feeling of release and I could blink again.
"The specialist on call — I don't think he believed me. He was asking to see video. He didn't see any damage and he was just trying to validate that it had come out of place. Everybody there was like 'yes, it came out.'”
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