Players are increasingly aware of the dangers of head injuries.
It was a disconcerting sight, as Ireland second row Mike McCarthy was carried from the field in a neck brace after a sickening clash of heads with team-mate Jack McGrath at the Stade de France on Saturday.
Certainly, it was a difficult moment for McCarthy’s Leinster team-mate Hayden Triggs, one of a growing number of professional rugby players willing to speak frankly about the spectre of concussion that now hangs over almost every game.
Triggs’ immediate reaction to McCarthy’s predicament was of concern, but he readily admits his fears over the number of concussions now being diagnosed within the game.
“I’ve sent [McCarthy] a message because I was pretty scared for him,” the New Zealander told the Independent.
“It looked horrific to see him out on a stretcher but talking to the lads who are back from Irish camp he seems normal, well, Mad Macca normal! But yeah, it’s scary.
“I’ll be honest, I’m scared about it. When I saw Macca go down and for him to go off on a stretcher… normally if you get a concussion they sit you up, feel your neck and then you walk off. But he’s on a stretcher, man, with his neck tied down.
“That’s scary. I’ve got kids. I’ve got a wife. I’m on the other side of the world from home. I don’t want that to happen to me.”
“For 80 minutes of the week, I don’t think about it. I don’t always think about it. But, when I see Macca, I think ‘shit man.’ You think about it. You don’t want it to happen to anybody.”
