Not even an infection which caused his face to swell up to the size of a cricket ball and three nights in hospital could prevent Jai Arrow from playing in South Sydney's Good Friday win over Canterbury.
The Queensland Origin forward sustained a cut in last week's win over St George Illawarra and when he arrived at training on Monday it had ballooned.
Souths teammates likened him to a chipmunk because of his swollen cheeks.
The back-rower was given antibiotics by Souths' club doctor but it had little effect with the forward admitted to hospital for treatment.
"I've had a week from hell to be honest," he said.
"It was painful and my eye sort of shut up on Tuesday. I had a big patch (on my face) at the start of the game and they were into it straight away on my first run so I ripped it off and didn't want a bar of it."
Souths coach Jason Demetriou made a point of singling out Arrow's commitment after the Rabbitohs' 36-16 win on Friday in his post-game speech.
After being discharged on Thursday, Arrow got a taxi to Redfern Oval to blow out the cobwebs with Rabbitohs trainer Travis Touma.
Arrow then got through 109 running metres and 25 tackles against the Dogs.
Arrow also suffered the loss of his paternal grandfather, Ray Arrow, earlier in the week.
But even with the painful cut and the loss of his grandfather, Arrow said there was never any doubt that he would play.
"I wanted to play," he said, revealing Demetriou had left the decision in his hands.
"I'll go celebrate his life with my family. He was starting to get to that age where it was expected.
"He would've wanted me to play and he was a massive fan of every team I played for so I think the right thing to do was strap the boots on and go out there."
The victory has given Souths three wins from their last four and Arrow said that they were finally getting back on an even keel after an up-and-down start.
"It always takes a while to find your groove," he said.
"We've got a fairly new spine, but it helps that those guys have played a lot of footy together.
"We were winning games last year but started slow and ramped up as the year went on and that'll be the plan this year."
