Nacewa plays through pain barrier

ISA NACEWA may have played the closing minutes of Leinster’s game with a broken arm last Friday but he was by no means the first sportsman to push through that pain barrier.

Such stories are littered throughout the sporting landscape. Wigan Athletic striker Jason Roberts played for 63 minutes with a broken leg against Reading in 2005 in a game which sealed the club’s promotion to the Premiership.

Dietmar Hamann played the 2005 Champions League final for Liverpool with a broken foot while Seattle Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck played the last eight games of the 2005 NFL season with two broken fingers.