Sochi 2014: Russian curler gets taken out by a stone

It's what I've been trying to tell my non-curler friends for years.

Curling can hurt you, my friend and I'm not just talking about it's tendency to - like golf - break your heart and frustrate you when what seemed so easy so suddenly goes away and has you wondering if you should ever take another slide.

That's ice out there, you know. Even though curlers wear special shoes with grippers designed to help give them traction when they're not sliding out to shoot a stone, dancing around all those rocks on that pebbled surface can lead you to taking a pretty hard tumble.

Ask Russian men's team skip Andrey Drozdov, who took a header in the second end in a game against Switzerland. (Click here to see the video)

With a Russian rock coming into the rings, where Drozdov was stationed to call out instructions to the sweepers, he appeared to clip a stone with his foot in his haste to get out of the way and went down hard on his right shoulder.

No worse for wear (although his shoulder is likely to feel pretty sore tomorrow) Drozdov continued to play and the day at a happy ending for him. His previously winless team upended the Swiss, 7 - 6.

Usually when a curler goes down, nothing more than their pride is hurt.

However, there have been serious injuries suffered by curlers who crash. Bruises and strains are the norm, but some have suffered broken bones and head injuries.

There are some curlers who wear a helmet when they play and that ain't a half-bad idea.

Drozdov came very close to hitting his head on either the ice or a rock and that could have been a much more serious matter.