Wests Tigers prop Alex Twal has suffered a frightening injury against the Bulldogs which forced his team to play almost the entire game with one less man on the bench. Twal attempted to tackle Matt Burton as he kicked but landed head-first on the turf and lay motionless on the ground for several minutes. Replays showed Twal became entangled with Burton, whose hand appeared to apply pressure to the Tiger’s neck as he fell.
Wests Tigers prop Alex Twal has suffered a frightening injury against the Bulldogs which forced his team to play almost the entire game with one less man on the bench.
Twal attempted to tackle Matt Burton as he kicked but landed head-first on the turf and lay motionless on the ground for several minutes.
Replays showed Twal became entangled with Burton, whose hand appeared to apply pressure to the Tiger’s neck as he fell.
Play stopped for almost five minutes and Twal eventually left the field in a medi-cab.
“There ends up being some serious contact,” Fox League’s Andrew Voss said.
“Twal is in very poor shape.”
Twal failed his HIA but was up and about in the dressing room and talking.
Given he only returned from another concussion last week, Twal looks at very long odds to line up in the Tigers’ next start.
Despite the forceful contact, Burton was not put on report or penalised, meaning his hopes of lining up in State of Origin II are not in doubt at this stage.
Burton is expected to be named to make his State of Origin debut for NSW in next Sunday’s game.
It comes eight years after former Newcastle Knights player Alex McKinnon was left a paraplegic after he was caught in a lifting tackle which injured his spinal cord.
