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'I was a prisoner in my own home' - concussion lays waste to another promising career
By Alex Shaw
Amidst the retirements of Schalk Brits and Chris Wyles, one departure from Saracens went a little under the radar following their Aviva Premiership title on Saturday and that was the of openside flanker Matt Hankin.
Saracens confirmed their list of departing players on Tuesday and Hankin’s name was among those who will be leaving Allianz Park this summer.
The player has had a long-running battle to recover from concussion and one which he candidly shone light upon in an interview with the RPA, describing the injury as making him feel anxious, isolated and a prisoner in his own home.
The 25-year-old was a part of the England U20 side that won the Junior World Championship in 2013 and had looked to be on a path to higher honours, and though Saracens have shown great patience to try and get him back to full health and ready to play again, this is a decision which has clearly been made with the player’s future health in mind.
Although Hankin has not officially confirmed his retirement yet and may well still be hopeful of recovering from the effects of concussions that continue to dog him, the news comes less than a year after another Saracens openside was forced to retire early, when a persistent neck injury derailed the equally promising career of Will Fraser.
Rugby’s battle with concussions was given a boost recently, with the news that a new tackle law will be trialled during the World Rugby U20 Trophy, where players will not be allowed to tackle above the nipple line of a ball-carrier, in the hopes this will lower the number of high collisions in the game.
If it helps prevent further cases like Hankin’s, it’s well worth trialling.
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Latest Comments
England have all the makings of a good team. We know that, and we have known that for years (including when Eddie was delivering disappointing results). But sometimes the positive comments about under-performing teams sound like describing a darts player as "fantastic, aside from their accuracy".
Its a trivial observation to say that scoring more points and preventing more points against you would result in better outcomes. And points difference does not mean much either, as it is generally less than 5 points with top teams. Usain Bolt would win the 100m sprint by 200 milliseconds (approximately two blinks of an eye), but that doesn't mean the others could easily beat him.
Also, these kinds of analyses tend to talk about how the team in question would just need to do X, Y and Z to win, but assume that opponents don't make any changes themselves. This is nonsense, as it is always the case that both teams go away with a list of work-ons. If we're going to think about what would have happened if team A had made that tackle, kicked that goal or avoided that penalty, the n let's think about what would have happened if team B had passed to that overlap, avoided that card, or executed that lineout maul.
There are lots of things that England can focus on for improvement, but for me the main observation is that they have not been able to raise their game when it matters. Playing your best game when it counts is what makes champions, and England have not shown that. And, for me, that's a coaching thing.
I expected Borthwick to build a basics-first, conservative culture, minimizing mistakes, staying in the game, and squeezing out wins against fancier opponents and game plans. It's not that he isn't building something, but it has taken disappointingly long, not least if you compare it to Australia since Schmidt took over, or SA after Rassie took over.
Go to commentsYeah he went ot France to develop himself because Aussie showed no interest. More fool them.
But JW thinks all SH players only ever go to Europe for the money which is facile to the nth degree.🤣
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