Collingwood ruckman Mason Cox has revealed the full extent of his internal injuries, saying it was even dangerous to be by himself at one point.
Cox hasn't played since suffering internal bleeding from an innocuous bump in round two.
What was initially thought to be a broken rib turned out to be a haematoma and ruptured spleen.
Cox has already been ruled out of next week's Anzac Day clash with Essendon, and the club will determine a return-to-play date following another medical check-up.
"The last time I was in here, I was pretty sick," Cox told KIIS on Tuesday.
"It's literally a lacerated spleen. I had two to three litres of internal bleeding into the system, which is not ideal.
"Essentially the next day I woke up and went to the doctor and I was in hospital 30 minutes later.
"I had a little operation, like a crazy operation that goes into your spleen and plugs things up and for the last two to three weeks, I've just been doing nothing.
"I can't get the heart rate up, can't work out or anything like that, so I've just been walking around. It's the most that I can do."
Cox was so unaware of how serious his injury was that he even trained a few days after the round two win over Port.
"That was the dumbest thing you could do," Cox said with a laugh.
Even medical staff were initially stumped at the true nature of the injury.
"After I had the operation, I was OK for a bit but for the first four-day period, it was kind of misdiagnosed," he said.
"We thought it was a broken rib and then we looked at the scans further and the radiologist realised he missed something.
"That was internal bleeding, which is pretty crazy to think.
"It was an interesting week, looking back on it, it was pretty serious and the fact I live alone - if something does happen and it becomes like a ruptured spleen, it would be very serious."
With both Cox and Darcy Cameron sidelined, Collingwood have been forced to use Billy Frampton as the lead ruckman.
The Magpies sit third on the ladder with a 4-1 record.
