Against Leicester the Northampton wing hit his head hard, went limp, and lay motionless – so why was he allowed to play on in the match?
George North never much liked to talk about concussion. In 2015 he was ordered to take a four-week lay-off because he had taken four bad blows to the head in five months. In the end it was nine weeks before North could say he felt OK and almost six months before he was able to play. In one of the few in-depth interviews he did give on this topic, to Rugby World, North explained that he considered quitting for good. “I thought: ‘I don’t deserve this, I don’t need this hassle in my life.’” At the end of it all, he said, “the biggest lesson I learnt, and I’d emphasise this to anyone who has concussion, if it’s not right for you then stop. Don’t do it.”
A year later, North has been hit again. Against Leicester on Saturday he jumped to take a bouncing ball and fell over the shoulder of Adam Thompstone. As he landed his head bounced down on the ground. He lay still, seemingly unconscious. Two minutes later, North was led off the pitch for a head injury assessment. And then he was allowed back into the match. Northampton’s head coach, Jim Mallinder, insisted that North had not been knocked out. The club have since decided that North needs to be referred for further assessment. They say that if he was knocked out neither Mallinder nor their medical team knew about it.
Related: Northampton defend handling of George North as concussion row is reignited
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