Brisbane forward Josh McGuire has revealed the full extent of the injury that has left him blind in one eye.

Since the incident in 2011, McGuire has been selected for both Australia and Queensland but it hasn’t come easy.

“We were playing the Bulldogs at Suncorp Stadium. It was round eight in 2011 and there were only a few seconds left in the game,” McGuire wrote for PlayersVoice.

“I made a pretty standard tackle on Greg Eastwood and one of my teammates, Mitchell Dodds, came in to help out. His finger accidentally poked me in the eye. The pain was sharp and I dropped to the ground. I couldn’t see out of my left eye.”

He continued, “My iris had collapsed and my retina had detached. The operation involved sticking a gas into my eyeball that kind of welds the eye. The gas bubble in your eyeball pushes your retina down to re-stick it.”

His return to training was a disaster with the bustling forward second guessing if he’d ever play another game.

“My first training session was rubbish. I couldn’t see properly and I was dropping balls all over the place.

 “I was really worried. I couldn’t play footy like this. I was probably lucky I was playing front row because I didn’t have to catch long balls or high balls. But even the basics were really difficult.

 “The biggest thing was getting used to the big hits. I instinctively brace now for the hit I can’t see coming.

 “But, back then, I don’t know, the hits just felt a lot bigger and more unexpected. I also had to put my head down low and tackle low. It was hard getting the confidence up to do that, putting my head somewhere where I could hurt the other eye.”

Ever wondered what it it’s like having one good eye and playing footy?

“This is what it’s like. If I put my hand over my good eye, all I can see is light and the odd shadow. If you passed a footy to me, I’d see a bit of a shadow … and then it would hit me in the face.”