Brutal extent of battered Cat’s horror injury revealed after stunning act of GF bravery

Geelong star Jeremy Cameron played the second half of the AFL grand final with a broken arm, it’s been revealed.

Cats football boss Andrew Mackie confirmed Cameron suffered a fracture after a nasty collision with teammate Patrick Dangerfield late in the second term.

The confirmation only makes Cameron’s heroic chase down tackle of Lion Jaspa Fletcher even more inspirational, given he took him to ground one-handed.

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But it was the moment that ended up turning the match in Brisbane’s favour as Cameron was left on the MCG turf in agony before heading straight down into the rooms.

Brisbane would go on to kick 12 of the next 14 goals to put the match out of the Cats’ reach.

Cats coach Chris Scott addressed the injury post-match, claiming Cameron’s 17-minute wait on the bench proved costly as Geelong went from one-point leaders to trailing by 19 points at the final change.

“Is it a crack, is it a decent break – can he play, can’t he?” Scott said of Cameron.

“That took a long time to work out.

“He was heavily limited.”

Cameron had bravely returned to the contest in the second half with a right arm guard in place following that clash with Dangerfield.

At the time, the 32-year-old had immediately clutched at his right arm which got wedged between he and Dangerfield’s bodies.

The Cats cleared Cameron to play on in the third quarter, with the protective brace put in place.

And when the star chased down Fletcher and grabbed him by the jumper one-handed, bringing both the Lion and the footy to ground, Max Holmes was able to goal off the turnover and the Cats hit the lead for their last time in the match.

“This might be a turning point here, the rundown chase by Jeremy Cameron,” Fox Footy’s Garry Lyon said.

“Fletcher looked at him and said ‘I’ve got you old boy’ – and even with the bad arm, he stuck it out and turned the footy over.”

As inspirational as Cameron’s actions were, it was a brutal result with the star heading straight down into the rooms reportedly with no feeling in his injured arm.

He was clearly holding his injured arm against his chest and looked in pain.

“It’s an inspirational chase from Jeremy Cameron to reach out with the left arm,” AFL great Jason Dunstall said.

“The problem is once he laid that tackle and went to ground, he had to use the sore arm to land on it.

“That’s where the impact came, but it’s a courageous, gutsy effort. He’s hurting and it’s earned them a goal.”

Cameron was down in the rooms for 17 minutes in the lead up to three quarter time.

But he returned for the last term in remarkable scenes – with even more padding on the injured arm while teammate Rhys Stanley subbed out instead at the final break.