When you think of basketball injuries, you usually think that someone might have twisted or sprained something or maybe in extreme cases broken a leg – you don’t think that their eyeballs might pop out.

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Unfortunately though a player named Akil Mitchell’s eyeball did pop out during a recent basketball match between New Zealand Breakers against the Cairns Taipans and it looked absolutely horrific. As Mitchell went up to challenge for a ball, Taipans’ Nnanna Egwu caught him in the eye with his finger and somehow managed to pop it straight out of his head.

You can watch the footage below but be warned, even though you only see it for a split second it’s pretty gruesome:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_iRxuZg6MY

Yeowch. The game was stopped for 15 minutes whilst Mitchell received treatment on the court and then he was led to the back with a towel over his head. Amazingly, he’s expected to make a full recovery from the injury, with team general manager Dillon Boucher saying:

Akil is sitting up and resting, and has vision to his injured eye.

While there is some damage, the early reports are very positive that the injury is not as serious as first feared.

Great news, let’s hope it’s accurate. Wouldn’t really wish anything like that on my worst enemy I don’t think.

For more of the same, check out this MMA fighter getting hit so hard that his eyeball pops out. Ouch.