In an incredible display of courage and commitment to his new club, the 32-year-old received a knee in the back during a marking contest late in the first quarter.

Quite remarkably, he kicked five goals after the incident and is now the league's joint leading goalkicker with Wangaratta's Callum Moore on 44.

The former Eastern Football League star has raced towards the half-century mark after only seven games.

He missed the first month with a broken finger.

Williams has dominated the O and M with his power marking and accurate kicking, but he's now displayed an incredible pain tolerance as the first visible sign he was in trouble didn't occur until the four-minute mark of the third quarter when he pulled up short in a marking contest against Adam Butler, holding the left side of his lower back.

When team-mate Tim Lawrence was kicking for goal a minute later, Williams was on one knee behind the goals, stretching his lower back.

"It was a real good knee in a good spot and did enough damage to chip some bone away in my back, they (medical staff) think I've fractured one of the bones in my back," he suggested at lunchtime on Sunday from Albury hospital.

To highlight his courage, Williams took a mark 40m out at the 17-minute mark of the final term, somehow kicked the goal, then limped off and was as white as a ghost as he made his way to the bench.

"I came off in that last quarter because I was starting to feel faint, I thought it's time to get off because I wasn't feeling too crash hot, I ended up fainting in the car after the game," he revealed.

"Scans showed I had a lot of internal bleeding, I was losing a lot of blood during the game."

However, Williams confirmed he wasn't urinating blood after the game.

"There were concerns for the organs, but all the main stuff is good, in terms of everything, that's a positive result," he offered.

"The damage wasn't to the kidneys or the spleen, which was good."

Given Williams was still waiting to see more doctors on Sunday, it's too early to suggest just how much football he will miss, although the club will naturally look after the league's most important player, given his ability to kick goals and attract numerous defenders, which then frees up team-mates.

The second-placed Pigeons now have the second week of the split round off, but then have two bumper games against Myrtleford (fourth) and Wangaratta Rovers (fifth).

Myrtleford should beat North Albury on Saturday to complete round 11, but it and Rovers will still sit two wins behind the Pigeons, so the latter has some wiggle room when it comes to the all-important top three finish.

The league's best defender Leigh Masters kicked seven goals against Wodonga Raiders last week and he again spent much of the game forward against Lavington, although he had the greatest impact when moved back to defence.

IN OTHER NEWS:

"It's a bit of our backline growing without him, we also want to score, keep the opposition guessing," coach Mark Whiley explained.

To read more stories, download The Border Mail news app in the Apple Store or Google Play.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: