Gruesome curling accident saw player rushed to hospital before returning to finish game on bloody rink

Brad Gushue is one of Canada’s most decorated curlers, winning Olympic gold at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, and bronze in Beijing in 2022.

But it wasn’t always smooth-sailing.

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On Halloween in 2015, a gruesome injury occurred during the quarter-finals of the Grand Slam of Curling.

The legendary Canadian curler squatted in the house to get a better angle of Mark Nichols’ incoming shot.

As the rocks collided, Gushue rose to his feet before losing balance and smashing his face directly into the ice.

Audible concern filled the arena as Gushue laid flat, covering his face, and pools of blood began to appear on the ice.

The sharp impact opened up a nasty cut just above his right-eye, and also resulted in a concussion.

He was rushed to hospital where he received seven stitches, but amazingly, returned to finish the quarter-final match.

Despite losing the match 5-2 to Steve Laycock, he still had enough bearing to poke fun at his gory injury, saying: “Stitches make for a great Halloween costume.”

The cut eventually healed, but the concussion effects lingered long into the rest of that curling season.

Gushue described the next 14 months as the hardest of his career, even suggesting a period when he wasn’t sure he would be able to return.

The incident remains one of the most gory in curling history.

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CBS Sports

Gushue explains decision to retire at the end of 2025-26 curling season

At the end of 2025, Gushue sat in front of a black background and announced he would be hanging up his broom at the end of the season.

He would explain his decision in detail during an appearance on the Beyond the Broom Podcast.

“The winning and being on the road with the guys and playing the games, I still enjoy all that, but the other stuff is just starting to outweigh the good things,” Gushue said.

He also explained that the moment of clarity came when he said traveling away from his loved ones became increasingly more difficult.

“I think at that point, you probably need to look at moving on,” he added.

He is visibly unable to read his statement in one take of the retirement video, evidently overwhelmed by the moment.

“I was very emotional as soon as I went on the internet. I got very emotional, and my wife got emotional,” he added.

“Then I started getting some messages from close friends and people I played against over the years and got more emotional.”