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Broncos player Ethan O’Neill had to be driven from Sydney to Brisbane after suffering a fractured eye-socket when a finger was poked deep into his eyeball.

O’Neill, the son of former Broncos and Queensland Origin representative Julian O’Neill, was seen immediately clutching at his right eye after being accidentally struck by Sea Eagles’ fullback Bailey Hodgson on Saturday.

A photo of the gruesome incident later went viral on social media, and even attracted responses from star Broncos like Reece Walsh.

O’Neill, 24, was rushed to Northern Beaches Hospital where he was told he had fractured his eye socket. Due to the severity of injury he was unable to fly home to Brisbane, Ethan was joined by a club official who hired a car and drove the pair home late Sunday.

“It felt like my eye was on fire,” O’Neill told this masthead on Monday. “It’s not fun. It’s not ideal. I was trying to score a try, I tried to hit and spin, but as I spun, his [Hodgson’s] hands caught me in the face.

“I immediately grabbed my eye and it was stinging. The pressure was like the pressure you feel behind your eyes when on a plane.

“When I walked to the sheds, my eyeball immediately puffed up. I was seeing double. I looked in the mirror and was like, ‘what the f...?’, and started stressing.