ORIGIN and Test winger Josh Mansour has revealed he was in danger of losing an eye and his NRL career as the result of a grisly facial injury.

Mansour copped the knee of a flying Anthony Don in the face last month and revealed the impact caused five separate fractures to his cheek and eye socket.

He went under the knife and is now recovering, and is aiming to return to the action later in the season.

But his career could have been dead in the water.

Round 20

“My face was practically caved in. There was five fractures and four of those were completely shattered, so it was pretty much like a jigsaw puzzle under my skin,” Mansour told Channel 7.

“The biggest risk was obviously losing my eye.

MANSOUR IN DEMAND: Four clubs chasing Penrith flyer

Josh Mansour in action for Penrith. Source: News Corp Australia

“My surgeon has done over 2000 people and he reckons he has only seen a dozen like this, and they are all from motor accidents and soldiers.

“When I was feeling my face (after the accident on the field) it just felt like a massive hole. They were trying to turn me and I was petrified to see their reaction, their reactions were scaring me and I know I was in a bad way.”

Mansour received a phone call from South Sydney forward Sam Burgess after the incident.

Burgess famously fractured his cheek during the 2014 NRL grand final.

Mansour knows it’s not an injury he can rush back from, for fear of it happening again.

“Another blow to my face I would definitely lose my eye.”