KEY POINTS:
Former All Black legend Stan Meads never left the field injured in his test career - he believes in finishing what he starts. So when a rampant steer attacked him at his Te Kuiti farm while he was vaccinating cattle, he ignored his serious leg injuries and finished
the job.
Meads, who played 15 tests between 1961 and 1966, had just bought 16 cattle and wanted to vaccinate them quickly, as there was rugby on that night. He had done half of them, when a rogue animal ran amok.
"They were quiet as anything. But then all of a sudden, one went bonkers for some reason and climbed all over the others. It got its foot through the rail - I wasn't looking, and this cattle hoof scraped down my shin and tore off the skin. I looked down, and there was a big flap there," said Stan, brother of All Black icon Colin Meads.
The bull's hoof had torn all the skin and muscle down to his right shin bone, and blood was pouring everywhere. But like the cool-headed player he was in his heyday, Stan didn't panic and kept focused on the job at hand.
"I looked at it and thought, 'Oh, gosh, I'm in a bit of trouble here'. I thought, 'I've got to finish vaccinating them', so I did that. And then I went down to the house and said to my wife: 'I think you'd better take me to hospital'."
Stan was rushed to hospital for an emergency operation. It was all a bit of a shock to his wife Beryl, who was busy in the kitchen.
"I was baking a cake for the rugby. And the next thing I know, there's a 'tap, tap' on the window," said Beryl.
Although the operation was a success, Stan suffered a secondary infection from the cattle hoof. That's sidelined him for almost six weeks. And kept him out of the farm game. He's been told to stay on his back and keep his leg above his chest to help circulation. Staying still has been difficult for Stan.
"You betcha. There's all these things that you've got to do, but you can't do them. It's taken a lot of time. It's been very frustrating. I've had help from neighbours. Glyn, Colin's son, has been helping out," he said. Stan has been stuck inside watching the Cricket World Cup. But he's disappointed that just as he's on the mend, the cricket's got interesting.
But it hasn't been all lying about watching sport. He's been ignoring medical advice and trying to help out on the farm whenever he can.
For Beryl, it's been frustrating trying to play nurse. "Trying to keep Stan still is very difficult. You can't stop him - off he goes and walks around. He said, 'I must be getting soft. I thought after two days I would be all right'. It was really, really bad."
