I think its quite important to note that Lance hasn't actually mentioned Flower yet (as he didn't all through the offseason following the incident).
We all presume there is an implication, but that's only because its quite an obvious link.

It may well be a case of cumulative effects (plenty of people have been KO's without this happening - myself included), but if there was ever a case for "the straw that broke a camel's back", then this would be it.

this is a thread that will keep on giving for a long while.......

I can sense another St Helens myth in the making.

But at least this one will be vaguely more viable than Gareth Hock deliberately throwing the ball at a little girl 20 rows up on the terrace.

There's a lot of legal issues that will need to be discussed (If Lance decides to go down the civil route) mainly exploring whether Flower's actions were the operating and substantial cause of his recurring concussion.

I honestly think it will be difficult to prove, seeing as Hohaia will have had blows to the head before and after the incident.

I'm gutted that he's had to end his career so abruptly and I hope gets all the help he needs back home. I'm sure he'll have a coaching role somewhere by the end of the season.

Lance Hohaia doesn't have post concussion syndrome. If he did he wouldn't be able to train let alone play on a regular basis. Concussion is the new buzz word in sport and this has been used to allow Saints to get Lance off their books and bring in someone else. Saints have obviously been in talks with McDonnell for some time, seeing as he was announce the day after Lance retired. I'd be shocked if he isn't playing in 2016.

Good post.

Shocking.

As for McDonnell, yes we have been in talks for some time, ever since Lomax got injured.

There are different issues you have conflated a little. A lot of the issue brought up in the NFL is CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy), which is caused by lots and lots of small head knocks rather than a single hit. This is more like punch drunk boxers have.

Hohaia has retired because, according to him, he is suffering from PCS (post-concussion syndrome) which is far more likely to have actually been caused by a single incident of concussion.

Just as an aside, Saints receive no benefit to Hohaia retiring from injury compared to him just retiring, so unless we are possibly accusing them and Hohaia of insurance fraud, im not sure why this would be said if not true.

edit: just to add, there isn't really enough info in the public domain at the moment for us to know whether or not it was the flower incident so no need to jump to conclusions. However the statements put out and reaction does seem to be pointing towards some form of legal action by Hohaia, whether this is regarding his insurance payout of action against Saints, the RFL, Wigan, or Flower I have no idea, but saints reaction especially does point towards something happening next.

First of all it's sad to see any player have to retire because of injury and good luck to him in whatever career he decides to pursue. He has obviously given it a lot of thought as was seen on the player education section on Boots'n'all last night. I found the Saints statement quite strange in the fact that injury was never mentioned and it seemed quite terse. If they were aware of the situation then why was he allowed to take part in full contact training sessions? Why was he allowed to play? Why wasn't he at least playing in a head guard? Strangely all his stats have been removed from the Superleague site. Coincidence? www.superleague.co.uk/stats/player_stats

First of all it's sad to see any player have to retire because of injury and good luck to him in whatever career he decides to pursue. He has obviously given it a lot of thought as was seen on the player education section on Boots'n'all last night. I found the Saints statement quite strange in the fact that injury was never mentioned and it seemed quite terse. If they were aware of the situation then why was he allowed to take part in full contact training sessions? Why was he allowed to play? Why wasn't he at least playing in a head guard? Strangely all his stats have been removed from the Superleague site. Coincidence? www.superleague.co.uk/stats/player_stats

Yet another example of you reading what you want to read. So I'll be (very) literal just for you.

No they are not. But I can read and what Lance is quoted as saying is '[isince returning to playing[/i'.

What that means is is wasn't there before - or did you conveniently omit that in the inevitable blind defence of the convicted thug?

So you/I don't actually have to be medically qualified to look at the chronology and whilst I'd accept that people can and will draw their own conclusions his statement is actually pretty clear [iIF[/i you care to read it before making silly statements.

However, what I will agree on is that I wish any player, from whatever Club, the very best when they are forced to retire. RL is a tough enough game without having it forced upon you.

You totally missed the point of my post.

You cannot attribute the medical problems a 32 year old long serving RL player to one particular incident unless you have the medical evidence to back it up. I am sure he's been punched more than once in that career.

one time, I fell over. I got up and was fine,
another time I fell and had a severe pain and swelling in my foot.

I was later diagnosed with a broken bone in my foot.

Which time that I fell over should we attribute the broken bone to?

Similarly to how we don't know enough to assume it was the Flower incident, we don't know anything to say it wasn't.

We shouldn't assume these things are always an accumulation, nor should we assume they can't be attributed quite easily to a specific incident. What Flower did was so unacceptable and so beyond the bounds of acceptability because of the possible consequences. This may be one of them.

So he was ok before.

He wasn't ok after. Then retired.

You wanna rethink that a bit?