Jermaine McGillvary answers the question “did Morgan Knowles mean to do it?” after Mike Cooper injury

Morgan Knowles was banned for five games after his hip drop tackle ended Wigan Warriors star Mike Cooper’s season through an ACL injury.

Jermaine McGillvary has been on the end of a similar tackle from Knowles and also suffered an injury and had his opinion on the tackle yesterday.

Today, he responded to some comments on the matter:

“I have seen a few comments saying it is a contact sport, but the same thing has happened to another player who is the same age as me and is he going to have to retire because of that.

“I would have retired if I had suffered that injury [ACL].”

That said he is adamant that Knowles hasn’t caused these injuries intentionally:

“Did Morgan Knowles mean to do it? I Don’t think he did. I don’t know him personally, I know the Head Coach at Saints and some of the boys and some of them are the most professional in the game, I don’t think he meant to do it but it is just a poor selection of a tackle technique.

“Sometimes it is tough in the heat of the moment and we are all putting our bodies on the line.

“Everyone on that field deserves respect but it has happened to two of us now with the same selection of tackle and it’s not good.

“Who knows what we have planned outside of rugby. Plenty of players live paycheque to paycheque and if that goes, a few of us would be f**ked.

“We need to look after each other. It is a tough game, it doesn’t need shitty techniques in it.”