Hockey player taking a skate blade to the face is what nightmares are made of

Anyone who’s ever tuned into the Winter Olympics has had the same thought while watching athletes fly around the ice with blades attached to their feet: “What happens if someone’s face meets someone else’s feet?”

Whether it’s speed skating, figure skating or ice hockey, we’re all acutely aware of the potential for any type of collision or altercation to result in athlete having one of their exposed body parts sliced off. It’s human nature to be terrified of that many razor sharp blades flying around at breakneck speed.

Well, our worst fears materialized in front of an international audience when Team Norway’s Kristian Forsberg took a skate blade to the face from Sweden’s Joel Lundqvist during their group round game on Thursday.

Reminder before you watch: you won’t be able to unsee this.

If you didn’t catch it the first time, just keep watching. Just like most nightmares, it’s quick but horrifying. Forsberg was taken out of the game to have his face stitched, but returned in the third period because hockey players are unstoppable maniacs.

After the game he told NRK.com that the injury was “not so serious.” Some people have a full on meltdown if they stub their toe, so again, it appears that hockey players’ have a different reference point for what type of injury qualifies as serious.

More Olympic coverage from Yahoo Sports:
• Busbee: U.S. luge relay team loses out on medal in blink of an eye
• Olympic snowboarder breaks neck after scary fall (video)
• Skating coach warned after attempting to fix Sochi race
• Chen’s top five NBA all-time All-Stars list is total nonsense
• Wetzel: We’ve already seen enough, bring the NHL back to Olympic hockey