Former Queensland prop Ben Ross is considering legal action against Australian Broadcaster Channel Nine after the "absolute tortuous" pain he lives with from the horrific broken arm he suffered live on an episode of the Footy Show in 2015.
Ross told Australia's Daily Telegraph he faces a fourth operation after revealing he would now have permanent nerve damage in his right arm. He sustained the injury during an on-air arm wrestle with former Kangaroos and Wallabies winger Wendell Sailor which went catastrophically wrong.
The former Dragons, Panthers, Sharks and Rabbitohs prop, who has spent thousands of dollars after sustaining damage to his elbow, nerves and shoulder, says he endures constant pain and struggles to surf or swim.
Ross has also been forced to employ extra staff for his own company, Epic Party Hire, because he can't lift anything over 10 to 20kg.
The 37-year-old told the Daily Telegraph legal action was still a possibility because he believes Channel Nine should help cover his ongoing medical costs.
"Definitely, it has to be. If I'm out-of-pocket or my company has been affected in a number of ways, that compensation has to be forthcoming," Ross said.
"I really don't want to take legal action against Nine but you'd think they'd have some type of responsibility in compensation, in some way. But I've haven't heard anything.
"I've got nothing against Nine and they have had a change of CEO in that time.
"But I've got permanent nerve damage in there at the moment. It is a burning, numbing feeling. It will be good one day; the next day it will be absolute torturous.
"They said it will never go back to what it was. I'll never lift big weights again. I can't do normal things, like surfing, swimming, those things are a bit of a struggle now."
Ross, who played in the NRL between 2002 and 2013 and six times in Origin in 2004 and 2005, also faces a shoulder replacement in the coming years but doesn't know how much that might cost.
"I wouldn't have a clue mate. I haven't added them up. They are the things you have to contemplate," he added.
"I think it has cost me more in paying people to do my work for the party hire.
"It's more lifting stuff. Anything over 10 to 20 kilograms you start to feel the pain and you pay for it the next day, which is a hard thing.
"I've got a party hire company and I can't lift - I've got to pay people to do the job I was doing. It makes it a lot harder to get work done."
Photo by: NINE NETWORK. Caption: Wendell Sailor and Ben Ross' arm wrestle on The Footy Show in June 2015.