It did cross my mind that with all the supplements that are used to legally enhance performance and speed up recovery , all of which are approved by the RFL , what sort of monitoring of these are carried out over the longer term.

Now more sport athletes are taking these at an early age is their any significant risk to their health over the course of their career?

It is still a mystery as to what has actually happened, some sites are reporting a suspected heart attack and on a few sites a broken neck has been reported. If it is a heart attack then i feel that the RFL need to look into this further maybe but just not yet.

It's very difficult to comment as there could be any number of causes for these tragically early deaths.

According to a colleague of mine who's partner has a heart defect these sort of things can be very hard to detect. In this case the bloke concerned had no idea he had a defect until he experienced his heart suddenly beating at 250bpm. Luckily for him his heart righted itself but this sometimes doesn't happen and leads to tragic results. He's since been fitted with an internal defibrilator.

So very very sad but as Bullseye says sometimes, if it was a heart problem, these things can remain hidden until a random moment and this could be the fittest, heathiest player on the field.

I just hope that the RFL get the usual help from the Cardiac Research Institute and are able to track down what did happen if it was heart related and we can make sure we do are best as a Sport to look after our players who put their body on the line everytime they train and play. At the end of the day though sadly this could be another problem that no amount of screening could have picked up.

God only knows how Wakefield as a Club must be feeling just now.

It certainly puts a lot into perspective doesn't it.

Quote: Bullseye "It's very difficult to comment as there could be any number of causes for these tragically early deaths. According to a colleague of mine who's partner has a heart defect these sort of things can be very hard to detect. In this case the bloke concerned had no idea he had a defect until he experienced his heart suddenly beating at 250bpm. Luckily for him his heart righted itself but this sometimes doesn't happen and leads to tragic results. He's since been fitted with an internal defibrilator.'" But given the lads involvement with the England youth team surely he would have been screened as link below. www.c-r-y.org.uk/RFL_Screening_report.htm When my lad was involved in the England U15 training squad - this was done over 2 full days with all the squad involved - if you missed the testing - you were out of the squad.

Quote: Bullseye "It's very difficult to comment as there could be any number of causes for these tragically early deaths. According to a colleague of mine who's partner has a heart defect these sort of things can be very hard to detect. In this case the bloke concerned had no idea he had a defect until he experienced his heart suddenly beating at 250bpm. Luckily for him his heart righted itself but this sometimes doesn't happen and leads to tragic results. He's since been fitted with an internal defibrilator.'" But given the lads involvement with the England youth team surely he would have been screened as link below. www.c-r-y.org.uk/RFL_Screening_report.htm When my lad was involved in the England U15 training squad - this was done over 2 full days with all the squad involved - if you missed the testing - you were out of the squad.