George North
Northampton will be “frustrated” that an investigation into the management of wing George North’s latest head injury has still to reach a conclusion, says ex-Saints team manager Lennie Newman.
A concussion panel was set up after North, 24, played on after landing on his head in the loss to Leicester.
The review, which is said to be “rigorous”, will now go into next week.
“And, first and foremost, they want to get one of their star signings on the pitch. They’re struggling at the minute and want to be able to select him.”
TV replays appeared to show North lying motionless after a high tackle from Leicester’s Adam Thompstone in the game on 3 December, but he returned to play after passing a pitch-side assessment.
The Concussion Management Review Group comprises RFU’s director of professional rugby, Nigel Melville; Phil Winstanley, Premiership Rugby’s rugby director; and an independent chairman, Dr Julian Morris.
The wait for the decision is understood to be because the Premiership and RFU are working together, as well as the incident having no previous precedent.
“If there’s one person that knows anything about head injuries that’s George North, having suffered so many in his young career,” continued Newman.
“I worked at Saints for many years and it is a superb medical team there who also knew George’s medical history and would not have sent him out if they didn’t feel he was right to do so. And the player has said he was not unconscious.”
bbc
From the footage included in the article am not sure that Burrell did anything wrong. North jumped into the air to compete for the ball launching himself forward with his knee up, at normal peed it looked like an accident and from some of the slow motion replays too, it was only from the one from behind that showed to me that Burrell made some kind of ‘tackle’ while North was in the air and technically according to the Law that is not allowed BUT for me North was the one who put himself and Burrell in a dangerous position – what if he had connected Burrell’s head with his knee while he was in the air, would they still have penalized Burrell for contact on North while he was in the air? I have said before I do not like this kicking the leather off the ball into the air and chasing because I feel it leads to many injuries, and of course find it boring.