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Hard-running prop Morgan Mitchell has been a force on the field for the expansion Toronto Arrows this season.

The New Zealander’s rise in rugby is all the more remarkable given he was deaf up until several years ago when a cochlear implant restored his hearing.

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Mitchell, 25, was born with a hearing impairment. He had some hearing thanks to hearing aids but his condition got worse. The five-foot-nine 251-pounder had the cochlear implant surgery three years ago after losing his hearing completely.

“My eardrum was pretty much gone … I could not hear anything and I was just lip-reading,” he said. “Life got a bit tough.

“If I didn’t have my parents, I wouldn’t have been here. They pushed me to get the cochlear implant. Now I’m loving it.”

On Friday, Mitchell and the Arrows (3-3-0) visit fellow expansion side Rugby United New York (4-1-0). It’s the home opener for RUNY at MCU Park in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn. The waterfront stadium is also home to the Brooklyn Cyclones, a New York Mets farm team in the New York–Penn League.