Whenever someone gets injured, viewers always fill our message boards wondering what kind of medical treatment players are allowed to receive without being pulled from the game and what they are not, so why don’t you talk about what happened specifically here with Missy hurting her foot, and also generally in terms of what medical assistance would constitute the need for someone to quit playing.It’s not a hard fast rule because every injury is so specific. But here’s the general approach—if you are in a life-threatening situation, we pull you. Period. That could even be a tiny little cut on your little finger, which we fear could get infected and get in your bloodstream. If so, you’re out. This happened to James way back when. But if you’re not in danger then it’s up to you. You can choose to leave the game due to pain or injury, but if medical doesn’t pull you then it’s still considered a quit, even though it may be unbearable. But if you fall in between—you’re not in a life-threatening situation and you don’t want to quit—then we assess on a case by case basis.
What we won’t do is anything that will give you an advantage. For instance if you are really weak from lack of food we won’t give you an IV to get you nourished and feeling better. But, what we can do is lance a boil that is really bothering you, or give you stitches for a small cut, or a wrap if your knee feels a little wonky. In Missy’s case the question centered around whether the foot was broken or not and how best to treat it. Because there were only a few days left in the game, our doctor felt fine protecting the foot and giving her some sticks to help her walk. Had this been early in the game she would have been pulled—no question about it. So what we did for Missy did not give her an advantage, it just allowed her to continue on, albeit at a major disadvantage. Hope that makes some sense. It’s tricky without a specific situation.
