A thin piece of wire may have saved Isabelle Kelly from losing three of her teeth after the "most uncomfortable" injury of the Sydney Roosters captain's career.
Despite an undefeated regular season from the reigning NRLW premiers, the latest finals berth has been hard won for Kelly, who wore a stray elbow to the face tackling North Queensland's Francesca Goldthorp in round nine.
"I knew straight away it was my teeth because I could feel them in the back of my mouth," Kelly said at the NRLW finals series launch in Sydney on Tuesday.
"Everyone was suspecting a jaw fracture, but I knew straight away that it was my teeth."
After nearly three hours flying back from Townsville with her teeth out of place, Kelly took some time away from teammates and booked in for emergency dental surgery.
Kelly was numb, but awake, as she had her errant teeth pulled back into place in the chair at a dental practice in Sydney's east.
"(I was) numbed up, the worst thing was actually the cut within my lip," she said.
"But everything else has been sweet, pushed it back in, got a splint on there.
"I was sweet once they were in. There wasn't actually a lot of pain once they were back in."
Kelly is no stranger to gruesome injuries. Another accidental elbow left her coughing up blood and struggling for breath during the first State of Origin game in 2023.
"I just seem to almost cop the most traumatic (injuries) and then I'm fine in a few weeks, which is funny like that," she said.
"It was a bit of a whirlwind the last few weeks, but I'm all good."
But the Roosters captain believes the situation could have been worse if not for earlier dental work.
Kelly previously had a wire installed at the back of her teeth as part of an Invisalign procedure to straighten her teeth.
"They think that's actually what stopped my teeth getting knocked out," Kelly said.
"(It's my) most uncomfortable (injury) within the fact, like, just eating. It took me a while to be able to bite down and all that sort of stuff. It's a weird injury, but I'm all good."
Kelly returned to the field last week, and will lead the Roosters out in next weekend's grand final qualifier against either the Sharks or Cowboys.
Tarryn Aiken's knee injury has rubbed the star playmaker out of the finals, but Kelly expects Corban Baxter will recover from an ankle issue in time to join the spine.
"She's back training, looking really fit. It's like she never left," Kelly said.
