Lining up against Richmond in Round 13, Adelaide forward Lachlan Murphy was fraught with anxiety.

For what he assured was the first time, the 20-year-old ran onto the football field without a mouthguard.

“I was in so much disbelief and shock that it happened the one time I don’t wear a mouthguard,” Murphy told The Crows Show, brought to you by Optus.

Within the first ten minutes of the match, Murphy copped a knock to the face and had several teeth dislodged.

But it wasn’t his smile that had the 20-year-old so concerned… it was his mother’s reaction.

“I put my tongue on the roof of my mouth and could feel three teeth up there,” he said.

“All I could think about was mum absolutely ripping shreds through me.

“Mum has instilled in all the kids that you are just not playing without a mouthguard.

“That’s been since I was six-years-old, I’ve never trained or played football, or basketball, without one.”

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Sure enough, Murphy was on the receiving end of a spray from his concerned mum.

“Two hours later when I talked to her on the phone it wasn’t all that flash for me,” Murphy said.

“‘How dare you, how could you run out there without a mouthguard, you know how much time and effort we’ve gone through (for) those teeth, I can’t believe you,’ she was saying.

Even before running onto the ground, Murphy was unnerved by not having his mouthguard.

“I started shaking, was getting the sweats… I said I wasn’t playing, can’t do it,” he said.

“Eddie Betts and all these blokes who had never worn a mouthguard saying, ‘it’s all good, you’re going to be fine’.

“Five minutes in, crack.

“I’ve got three mouthguards now and I will not be forgetting them ever again, I can tell you that right now.”

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Sitting in the crowd at the match was Dr Mark Earl, Adelaide’s on-call dentist.

“I met them downstairs in the medical room and the front teeth were moved back and the roots were displaced forward,” Dr Earl said.

“I was able to reposition the teeth into the correct position and promptly arranged for Lachie to meet me at our surgery here in Mitcham.

“He actually returned to the game before the game finished.

“It was important to be at the game where that could be done immediately, (it) would have been much more difficult to do after.”

Tune into The Crows Show at 11.30am Sunday on Channel 7 in Adelaide.