An Australian hockey player chose to have part of his finger chopped off, just so he could compete at the Olympic Games!

Matt Dawson, aged 30, made the decision when he broke his finger during training before flying out to France.

A surgeon told him that it’d take months to recover from an operation to fix the finger, meaning that he’d miss the Games – plus, there was no guarantee that it would fully heal and work properly again. On the other hand (wink!), he faced a ten-day recovery period if he had it removed… so that’s what he did.

“This could be my last [Olympics]… if taking the top of my finger was the price I had to pay, that’s what I’d do,” Dawson explained.

He played in both his country’s opening wins over Argentina and Ireland.