On Thursday one of our players was involved in a bad crash which resulted in a very serious wound.

Ramon and Matt were fighting for the ball against the back boards when their wheels caught causing both players to be thrown from their bikes. Matt went down first and Ramon was dismounting over his bars and struggling to find his feet underneath him. It looked like he was going to make it out of the crash safely when he let out a cry of pain.

We knew it was bad if it was able to make Ramon cry out, he’s a tough and gritty player. We at first assumed he had subluxed his shoulder or twisted his ankle until we saw the blood.

When dismounting his bike he stepped directly onto Matt’s brake lever. The brake lever pushed through his shoe, into his foot and stopped just before exiting the top of his foot. This wasn’t a sharp brake lever or out of the ordinary in any way. This was a stock full sized brake lever. The lever, upon inspection, had not one drop of blood or gore after piercing his foot.

We carried him over to a bench to asses the situation as thick deeply red clots of blood splashed to the ground. We cut off his shoe and applied bandannas as bandages. The bleeding stopped quickly and against our better judgement we brought Ramon home to be checked over by a nurse friend of his.

The situation didn’t improve after caring for the wound at home so Ramon went to the ER in the morning. They looked it over and found that a piece of the rubber sole had been lodged deep in his foot.

The doctor theorized that the rubber stopped the brake lever from completely piercing his foot. In order to sterilize the wound and remove the rubber they had to cut a hole in the top of his foot. It gives me the willies just thinking about it.

Ramon now has the first documented case of Polo Stigmata. Here’s to a speedy recovery, Ramon.