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The Stingers play a dangerous game; it will break their bones and tear their flesh apart.

This isn’t news to the women of Concordia University’s rugby team. They’ve played long enough to know that, in the end, there’s no getting out unscathed.

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The collisions that punctuate a match knock teeth loose. They whittle away at the muscles and tendons that hold these athletes’ joints in place.

And yet, despite this grim reality, the Concordia Stingers stay in the game.

“I wouldn’t give it up for anything,” said Jenna Thompson, the Stingers captain. “There’s always a ton of adrenaline surging through your body and to share it with another 14 girls on the field, it’s incredible.”

The Montreal Gazette will follow The Concordia Stingers throughout their 2017 campaign in hopes of learning why these women choose to play a sport that offers no real incentives other than the thrill of competition.

Thompson, an engineering student, will play this season with torn ligaments in her left knee. She’s broken her nose, displaced her ribs and, two years ago, doctors had to repair the labrum muscle in her left shoulder.