Likely England Ashes starter urged to retire after seventh concussion in four years

One of the players who Shaun Wane will likely call upon in this year’s rugby league Ashes has been urged to retire by a medical professional.

Victor Radley has been a key player under Shaun Wane and would likely be the starter at loose forward in this year’s Ashes series, the first since 2002, but there are concerns over the Sydney Roosters forward’s health.

Radley left the field in the Roosters win over the Knights last weekend with the enforcer confirmed to suffer a concussion, making it his seventh in four years but a medical professional has questioned that figure.

Dr Adam Cohen, one of Australia’s leading concussion experts, has claimed that due to player unwillingness to report symptoms and ‘comprised’ spotters, the number of concussions could be far higher.

“I’d be amazed if it was only seven times in the last four years,” he said, per Wide World of Sports.

“Everyone knows players don’t volunteer symptoms because they don’t want to come off during a game and certainly not in training. Clearly too, the ‘spotters’ are severely compromised and conflicted, tending to under report.”

Victor Radley urged to consider rugby league retirement after latest HIA

Cohen has now gone as far to suggest that Radley should seriously consider retirement from rugby league, or take on an extended break which could see him ruled out of the Ashes.

“If he was my patient, I would be urging him to think about giving it away because of the long-term effects of concussion – or at the very least taking an extended break,” Cohen stated, before pointing to previous rugby league players who were medically retired on similar grounds.

“The question has to be asked for Victor, if not now, then when? The same question Boyd Cordner and Jake Friend had to confront. How many are too many? How many per season, per year or per career? And the simple answer is that no one actually knows.

“The more you have the more you get, the easier you get them, the more you suffer and the longer it takes to recover. So in the absence of science, we should fall back on another commodity sadly in short supply when discussing concussion: common sense.”

That last point was made by rugby league legend Darren Lockyer who noted the fact that Radley’s latest confirmed concussion wasn’t a “big bump”, with Radley seemed to make contact with the hip of the ball-carrier.

Speaking on Channel 9, he said: “I think the concerning part is that that wasn’t really a big bump so when players are getting concussions when it’s not a heavy knock, that’s alarming.”

It had previously been confirmed that Radley would see an independent specialist in his attempt to overcome this latest issue. He has now failed two HIAs in 2025.