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Worcester issue statement after Michael Fatialofa surgery
By Online Editors
Worcester have announced that lock Michael Fatialofa has undergone successful surgery to relieve pressure on his spinal cord.
The 27-year-old suffered a neck injury during Worcester’s 62-5 Gallagher Premiership defeat against Saracens at Allianz Park on Saturday.
Play was held up for almost ten minutes as he received medical attention and, having been carried from the pitch on a stretcher, he was taken by ambulance to St Mary’s Hospital in London.
In a statement, Worcester said: “Warriors lock Michael Fatialofa is resting and recovering in St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, having undergone surgery last night (Monday) to relieve pressure on his spinal cord caused by swelling.
“The operation was a success and Michael is stable but remains in a serious condition and receiving ongoing care at the intensive care unit of the hospital. The process of recovery and observation of improvement will now begin.
(Continue reading below...)
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“As always, our thoughts and prayers are with Michael and his family, who we will continue to support however we can as part of the Warriors family.
"Michael and his family are sincerely grateful for the support shown by the rugby community. We will update on Michael’s condition as appropriate.”
- Press Association
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Latest Comments
The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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