Bang to nose left rugby star bedbound after rare infection spread to his bones

In 2013, Sam Davies was named world junior player of the year, and made his full Wales debut against Australia in 2016 [Sam Davies] A Wales international rugby player lost 7kg (15lb) in weight and was left bedbound after what seemed like an innocuous bang to the nose. The injury happened while Sam Davies, 32, was playing for Grenoble in January, and despite heavy bleeding, he continued playing. Weeks later, doctors discovered he had staph infection - which is caused by staphylococcus, a germ that lives in the nose of one in three people and can enter the body through a cut.

By this point, it had spread to his bones, leaving him with no feeling in his legs and in agonising pain. While treatment is tackling the infection, it is unclear when he will be able to return to playing. Reflecting on a nightmare few months, Davies said: "I think the positive thing for me to try and keep a hold of is the fact that I'm better, I'm walking around.

"I've come from a place where I was completely kind of unable to walk, to being able to walk around and do everyday tasks. And, I think that was the first protocol to start with, was just to get back to normal. "So I'm back to normal in terms of everyday living.

I've just got to get back to rugby protocol. " Microbiologist Dr Sarah Hooper said Davies' "severe" case would have been difficult to diagnose because his symptoms were "quite vague". She added: "It [the infection] would be more difficult to treat as it's moved around the body and is well established [before it was detected].