Wakefield Trinity fan favourite Jazz Tevaga has revealed he feared that he had lost his  sight in the Super League Grand Final after copping an eye gouge from a teammate.

Tevaga, who quickly established himself as one of the competition’s best in his first season at Wakefield, managed to get on the score sheet in the Super League Grand Final as Trinity made history.

However, he scored that try whilst still being without clear vision after leaving the field earlier in the game due to an accidental eye gouge from one of his own teammates.

Tevaga had left the field early on for what was assumed to be a Head Injury Assessment but he’s now revealed on The Montoyas podcast how he feared he had lost his eyesight in the incident.

Currently representing Samoa at the Rugby League World Cup, Tevaga appeared on the podcast that’s hosted by his former teammate Marcelo Montoya to share the scary details.

“Am I blind?” – Wakefield Trinity man reveals Grand Final injury

The incident, which happened in the sixth minute, was a result of friendly fire from teammate Zac Lipowicz but rather than being just a head clash, Tevaga explained how the Australian’s finger went deep into his eye.

“His full finger went straight into my eye. So I guess they had to check my head but yeah.. I couldn’t see,” the forward revealed, adding: “Because his full finger went into my eye, I was like, f**k, am I blind? I couldn’t open my eye. Holy s**t. That’s what I was thinking about.

“I couldn’t open my eye. And I was like, f**k, no, I’m blind. I’m blind now. I’m Stevie Wonder! I thought I was f****d and then they took me into the changing room.”

Having not had a head knock, Tevaga was cleared to return but his vision still wasn’t perfect though it didn’t stop him from scoring and opening up what turned out to be an unassailable lead.

He said: “I slowly got my bit of vision back, but I couldn’t see from like this half (pointing to the bottom half of his eye) down for the whole game. So I could only see out the top half and then this eye (the other one).”

Thankfully, his vision returned and Tevaga was able to enjoy the celebrations post-match after an incredible first year with Wakefield Trinity  – one that he spoke more on, calling it ‘nuts’ that the club managed to lift silverware.

“I knew we had potential but to do it was unreal,” he admitted.

“The mad thing was everyone wrote us off – especially going into the semi against Wigan. They won the League Leaders and the Challenge Cup so everyone wrote us off.

“The year before they’d made the top six and we were expected to go a step further – we were aiming for top four but we won the comp. To do that in the first year is nuts.”

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