The Welsh star has a history of head injuries.
Leicester Tigers have come away with a victory in the big East Midlands Derby as they beat Northampton Saints 19-11 at Vicarage Road.
Unfortunately the game was marred by a serious incident, where Saints and Wales winger George North, was involved in a nasty collision with Tigers winger, Adam Thompstone.
After 16 minutes of the first half, North was running after a kick-chase when the ball bounced favourably for the Welshman and he jumped into the air in an attempt to catch the ball.
However, there was reckless play from Thompstone, who took the player out in the air by leading with his shoulder.
https://twitter.com/willmoore1993/status/805117816080842752
North was clearly knocked unconscious as we can see from the images below – once his head made contact with the ground, his whole body went limp.
North went off for a head injury assessment (HIA) and returned to the fray just moments later.
After the game, Saint’s head-coach, Jim Mallinder, told BT Sport that North was not knocked unconscious.
 “If you get knocked out you can’t go back on,” he told BT Sport. “He wasn’t knocked out, he was fine.”
There are medical professionals employed by the club who are in a better place to make these decisions, but surely when a player’s head makes such a heavy impact with the ground and that player’s body goes completely limp – then that player should not return for another 60+ minutes of action.
Especially a player who has such a history with head injuries.
This reaction wasn’t lost on us and people went to twitter to vent their anger at this decision.
Another weekend & another shocking call around HIA in rugby. I dread to think what state George North will be in at 50. #LEIvNOR
— David Sheehan (@DavidSSport) December 3, 2016
https://twitter.com/danjomurray/status/805125989667840000
The biggest issue here is that George North was allowed to play on. He is clearly unconscious, someone needs to step in here…. https://t.co/cjJ4ZCrzbQ
— Mark Rance (@markrance84) December 3, 2016
World Rugby has raised awareness around concussion in recent years and we are really pleased to see the strides that have been made in the game over the last decade or so.
However, none of that positive work matters if the powers at be continue to put player’s well-being at risk.
