Welsh rugby star Aled Summerhill has publicly called out the United Rugby Championship after the league mocked footage of him getting concussed.
The cross-continent competition shared a video clip of Cardiff Rugby wing Summerhill, 27, suffering a blow to the head amid a challenge during South African side Lions' win earlier this month. The clip's caption on social media said "goodnight" alongside sleeping and laughing emojis, and "ZZZ" over Summerhill's body as he lay on the ground.
He flew home early from Cardiff's away trip to South Africa and the social media clip has now emerged, met with criticism and outrage. "Really didn’t think head injuries were something to joke about with all that’s going on with it within the sport, there we are then URC," Summerhill said on Twitter.
Former Wales international Alix Popham, who was diagnosed with early onset dementia two years ago amid his doctor's belief he had suffered 100,000 sub-concussions in his 14-year career, said: "Wow, this is disgusting, what are URC thinking?"
Progressive Rugby, a lobby group formed to demand more to protect the well-being of players, said: "Aled Summerhill [is] absolutely right to call out this appalling post. So much work going into educating coaches, players and fans about the need to take brain injuries seriously. This type of laddish post undermines this and worse, ridicules a player appearing to suffer a concussion."
The social media post has been slammed as shocking, a shambles and disgraceful by fans. URC CEO Martin Anayi has responded, saying: "This should NEVER have gone up, we are investigating now with our social media agency - it has been removed - we take player safety very seriously indeed".
Cardiff Rugby said they were "appalled" by the social media post, saying: "The video post made light of a collision against Emirates Lions in which, Summerhill lost consciousness and was subsequently stood down from the following URC fixture. As soon as the club was made aware of this post, senior URC officials were contacted, who were equally appalled and immediately removed the post. The URC have been in contact with the club and Summerhill to offer their unreserved apologies and are now investigating the post and reviewing their processes. Player welfare and safety is of paramount importance and the post was not in line with the core values of the URC or Cardiff Rugby. We thank URC for their swift manner in dealing with this lack of judgement, their subsequent actions and apologies to the player."
The Welsh wing will be in contention for a return to action for Cardiff when they face Glasgow this Saturday if he continues to pass the return-to-play protocols following the head injury.
