You’re a soldier at war, possibly fatally wounded by enemy fire.
Blood is spilling out of your flesh. You need medical attention as soon as possible.
But as you lie there in the medical tent, the doctor is attending to everyone around you - all, except you.
Your condition is critical and you can feel life draining from your body.
Today that soldier’s name is Rugby and the doctor is Two-Thumbs Government.
Now even if Two-Thumbs made it to Rugby while this column is rolling off the pages at the printers last night, I still believe there will be some lasting effects because of these wounds.
See, the oval ball’s administrators had been eyeing mid-September for a return to action, with a domestic competition involving all of its franchises.
So when sports minister Nathi Mthethwa announced on August 6 that rugby could return to play under certain conditions, there was hope that this could materialise.
But first they had to get the thumbs up from government to return to contact training.
Once that phase starts, the players could be match-ready in about four weeks at a push - it takes time to get the body ready for the physical nature of the game.
So even if contact training got the thumbs up yesterday, it looks increasingly unlikely that they will restart in three weeks’ time.
It’s frustrating for any rugby fan who watches players from other sporting codes vreet mekaar op whenever they have something to celebrate.
It must be frustrating to those actively involved in the sport too.
Saru CEO Jurie Roux last week said they were waiting for government’s approval in the next day or so, after South Africa moved to level two of lockdown.
I waited, they waited, the weekend came around and we waited again.
All the while, our cricket players returned to action last month already and our soccer boys are almost done with their season in their Gauteng bio bubble.
I understand that because of the hands-on nature of rugby, that it was always going to be tougher to convince government that they should return to action.
But surely, with other countries such as Australia, New Zealand, England and the PRO14 UK teams returning to the game, there is some sort of blueprint that can be followed.
I don’t know whether the hold-up is from government’s end or if the rugby administrators’ plan just isn’t good enough for approval, but either way the situation is crippling the game.
Earlier this week, one of Rugby’s limbs already tapped out when the Kings announced that they will not participate in any competition this year.
Anyway, the latest rumour concerning plans going forward is that if South Africa leaves Super Rugby, they will send four franchises to do battle in an extended PRO16 tournament.
In the current format, the Cheetahs and Kings are playing in PRO14, while the Stormers, Sharks, Bulls and Lions have Super Rugby status.
I have always been of the opinion that less is more when it comes to the number of participants - fewer teams, better quality.
Obviously we can’t just cut the talented players from those squads, so we have to look at mergers once again.
Remember Griquas and the Pumas also have franchise status.
Therefore, I reckon Griquas must join the Stormers - die helfte van hulle manne is hoekal van die Kaap.
The Pumas boys who are good enough can join the Bulls, the Cheetahs the Lions and the Kings the Sharks.
In the past, these sort of mergers haven’t really worked, with Boland players, who were supposed to be part of the Stormers squad back in the day for example, getting a raw deal.
I remember Cornal Hendricks and Willie le Roux both falling through the cracks like that in the Western Cape.
Bok scrumhalf Faf de Klerk, though, is an example of a loan deal gone good. When he started out, Faf was loaned to the Lions by the Pumas before signing a permanent deal... and the rest is history.
So some real gems can be unearthed by combining teams and actually sending out decent scouts.
One merger that worked well in the past was that of the Cats - which saw the Lions and Cheetahs combine.
Yes, it had its challenges, but with lessons learnt from the past, this might turn into gold for SA Rugby.
All-in-all, Rugby is bleeding let’s hope it’s not allowed to bleed out.