Earlier that day, Tracey had played through a muscle tear in his core as the Bulldogs posted their best win of the season against Manly.
When he began feeling a sharp pain some hours later, he rushed to hospital, fearing he may have suffered a hernia by aggravating his existing injury.
"It was a bit scary," he said.
"It was quite concerning and quite painful but there was good news once I got the scan and realised it wasn't the worst case scenario."
Scans revealed an abdominal haematoma, caused by a burst artery.
Initially, sitting upright and sneezing brought on significant pain.
The 29-year-old knows a thing or two about the subject, having suffered three anterior cruciate ligament injuries in his career.
"I've had a few injuries in my career, a few surgeries, so I've felt a bit of pain. But it'd be up there, it was definitely up there in terms of pain levels," Tracey said.
"I've probably had every different injury but this is the weirdest one: a laying-in-bed injury.
"It was quite bizarre."
Tracey eventually spent three weeks sidelined but had been bugging Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo to bring him back even earlier.
He impressed his teammates with his resolve to return to the third-placed Bulldogs' premiership tilt.
"He's tough," said centre Bronson Xerri.
"We value grit here so that's just showing grit."
The Bulldogs will need Tracey at his busy best as they face top-four hopefuls Cronulla in their first game since Jacob Kiraz's foot injury.
Kiraz and Tracey are both instrumental out of yardage for the Bulldogs, who will finish third on the ladder even if they lose their last regular-season game.
"(Kiraz) is going to be a big loss for us," Tracey said.
"But the reserve grade boys have been playing unreal and we've got good depth this year.
"We're still building as a team and just looking forward to getting one final hit-out against a top-quality team before we have a finals game."
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