“Look after the bloke!” – Rugby League icon issues player welfare concern over sickening Pacific Championships incident

Concerns over player welfare have been raised by a former rugby league and NRL great, following on from some scary scenes that took place in the Pacific Championships this weekend.

New Zealand defeated Tonga to reach the final of the international competition, but all the post-match talk surrounded Tongan back-rower Eli Katoa, who suffered a seizure on the sidelines following a head knock.

Footage first emerged of a collision between Katoa and a teammate in the warm up, that showed shoulder contact to the head, leaving the back-rower wobbly as he fell to the floor.

Following subsequent concussion checks, the Melbourne man was allowed to take to the field, before suffering another collision in the first half. Again, Katoa was pulled off to be checked, but was allowed to enter the game after passing the test.

A third head contact then took place in the second half of the game, which then forced him off for the remainder of the game, but scenes then took a nasty turn as he suffered a seizure on sidelines that forced him to go to hospital.

Melbourne have released a statement on his condition, revealing that their player went straight to hospital to have surgery and was in a stable condition.

However, questions have been raised over whether Katoa should have taken to the field at all, let alone for a second time.

Former St Helens and current Tongan international head coach Kristian Woolf was asked about the proceedings in his post-match interview, and believes there was no wrongdoing by any of his staff and that they followed the correct protocols.

With the interview taking shortly after the incident, Woolf said: “The doctor’s done the usual HIA. We’ve got two very experienced doctors there, they’ve done their usual HIA. He’s passed all that and passed all that well.

“My job is not to question doctors. As I said, they were both comfortable with that and confident with him coming back on to the field.

“I don’t think there’s anything to worry about there in terms of the process. Unfortunately, he’s copped a heavy hit and it’s been a bit of a poor result on the back of that.”

Woolf also confirmed that there was no HIA that took place after the initial collision in the warm-up, and that his doctors performed their roles to the best of their ability.

“He had two HIA’s in the game. He passed his HIA for the first one, and obviously with the second one, he doesn’t go back on anyway, but by all reports he was fine when he came off and he’s deteriorated after that.

“Everything’s been done by the book there. We’ve got two extremely experienced doctors. So, I don’t think anything’s gone wrong there in terms of the process. It’s just an unfortunate situation.”

“There’s going to be fallout” – Rugby League icon gives verdict on scary Pacific Championships incident

New Zealand rugby league legend, Shaun Johnson, has had his say on what happened on Sunday, and gave his take on what happened after being at the game live to cover the game for TV broadcast.

The 35-time Kiwi international believes that more should have been done to protect Katoa, and watching the scenes made him feel sick.

Speaking on his podcast, “The Play On Sport Show”, Johnson said: “Those were scary scenes. I feel a bit angry about the situation. I don’t get how it can even get to that point, but just from a player’s point of view, we just hope Eli’s all good.

“Anyone who’s been in that situation or seen teammates in that situation, it’s the worst thing in the world to see.”

Believing that stronger measures should have been in place, he added: “There’s going to be fallout over this. There’s going to be some heads that’ll roll because I do not know how Eli Katoa was even allowed to take the field.”

Describing what happened from his point of view, he said: “In warmup, he has a shoulder to the head. All I thought straight away, when I saw that was like, okay, if that happened in a game, or if that happened at training during the week, he’s done…

“Then it comes through that he’s passed his HIA… We felt sick over the incident. He was not right. It was a bad one, it wasn’t a mediocre one.”

In a strong message to both the medical staff and the game’s higher-ups, he said: “Player welfare, man, look after the bloke!”

“It’s a game of rugby league. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t actually matter when you start talking about your head.

“He takes a third one, second half late on… I actually felt proper sick. It was yuck. They pull him off, I don’t even know, I don’t want to speculate, I don’t know if that was a HIA pull off, but then what we see from the sidelines is really alarming.

“It’s not what you want to see, and it’s not what a player should ever have to go through. I just hope Eli’s all good. I wish it never got to that point. I hope it never, ever gets to that point for any of our players again, because the players will always want to play.

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