Terrible news. Found it hard to watch the agony on his face when I saw the video.
Make you realise what these guys are putting their bodies through every single week. Whether a player is good or bad, old or young, I have the utmost respect for anybody who takes to the rugby field. I am lucky I only ever had a couple of minor injuries but even at a young age I was seeing kids leave the pitch with broken arms and the like.
I imagine he won't play again which will be heartbreaking, even more so at his age (22). I hope he recovers and can find a way to keep involved in the sport.

That's awful.

Tbf to Smith there wasn't anything wrong with the tackle, it was just unfortunate that McKinnon tucked his head in like he did. That said some things are more important and him complaining to the ref is pretty tactless. Horrible incident and I hope he is going to be ok.

Latest news is not good.Fear his playing days may well be over.Lets hope he makes a positive and speedy recovery. rugbyleagueweek.com.au/mckinnon- ... al-injury/

Latest news is not good.Fear his playing days may well be over.Lets hope he makes a positive and speedy recovery. rugbyleagueweek.com.au/mckinnon- ... al-injury/

The incident was put on report at the time by the referee so there was always going to be a hearing.
He has been stood down from this weeks round and his hearing postponed out of respect to Mckinnon and his family.
Seems harsh but under the circumstances totally understanable.Having looked at the accident it looks like something you see week in week out in RL games.No malice or intention,just an unfortunate set of circumstances all coming together at one terrible instant.

Does a player's insurance reimburse him for any loss of income if they retire early due to an injury like this?

Normally yes.No doubt the NRL will look after him very well anyway.

The poor lad seems to have been put into an induced coma.

Alex was unfortunately in the position of negotiating for a new contract and was due to sign this week, so his current contract is only for the remainder of this year.
On the plus side, he would have the best possible medical insurance thanks to Knights major sponsers NIB (a medical insurance company), and he also lives in one of the areas where Australia's new National Disabilities Insurance Scheme is being trialled, so he won't get a lump sum, but will get ongoing funding for his needs as long as he has a disability.
It is also unthinkable that the club, fans and community of Newcastle won't look after him.

The crown of his head hit first only because the leg lift raised his hips higher than his shoulders. Dangerous position out of his control. This sort of tackle is commonplace and yet very dangerous.

In my view if you lift someone so their hips are higher than their shoulders then you are responsible for how they land.

I hope they dish out a massive ban and clamp down on this practice.

Got to agree. It may have looked fairly innocuous - the sort of tackle we see again and again - but in reality McKinnon was tipped into a dangerous situation and reacted instinctively. If he'd not tucked his head it would have been driven into the turf crown first - he wasn't to know that the final angle of impact would mean the back of his head/neck bore the brunt of the impact.

There was no need to lift his leg (there never is) and the outcome of the tackle speaks or itself. Intentional or not, accidental or not, by lifting the leg McLean has caused the incident. I don't think for a second he meant to cause any injury, merely send a message to his opposite number and 9,999 times out of 10,000 no real harm is done, but eventually that 1 worst case scenario will occur and the question then is should the punishment fit the act or the injury?

i've just watched the video of that, and its made me physically sick, poor lad, poor poor lad.

He's suffered exactly the same injury I did. Same level, same operation, same induced coma. Bloody scary.

I hope the damage to his spinal cord isn't to the same extent as mine was.

I can't even bring myself to watch the game. Just deleted it straight off my Sky box.

My thoughts are with him and his family.

Just reported at half time in this mornings game he's been diagnosed as a quadriplegic..Terrible news www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6870148278

Just reported at half time in this mornings game he's been diagnosed as a quadriplegic..Terrible news www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6870148278