Does a player's insurance reimburse him for any loss of income if they retire early due to an injury like this?

Normally yes.No doubt the NRL will look after him very well anyway.

The poor lad seems to have been put into an induced coma.

Alex was unfortunately in the position of negotiating for a new contract and was due to sign this week, so his current contract is only for the remainder of this year.

On the plus side, he would have the best possible medical insurance thanks to Knights major sponsers NIB (a medical insurance company), and he also lives in one of the areas where Australia's new National Disabilities Insurance Scheme is being trialled, so he won't get a lump sum, but will get ongoing funding for his needs as long as he has a disability.

It is also unthinkable that the club, fans and community of Newcastle won't look after him.

The crown of his head hit first only because the leg lift raised his hips higher than his shoulders. Dangerous position out of his control. This sort of tackle is commonplace and yet very dangerous.



In my view if you lift someone so their hips are higher than their shoulders then you are responsible for how they land.



I hope they dish out a massive ban and clamp down on this practice.

Got to agree. It may have looked fairly innocuous - the sort of tackle we see again and again - but in reality McKinnon was tipped into a dangerous situation and reacted instinctively. If he'd not tucked his head it would have been driven into the turf crown first - he wasn't to know that the final angle of impact would mean the back of his head/neck bore the brunt of the impact.



There was no need to lift his leg (there never is) and the outcome of the tackle speaks or itself. Intentional or not, accidental or not, by lifting the leg McLean has caused the incident. I don't think for a second he meant to cause any injury, merely send a message to his opposite number and 9,999 times out of 10,000 no real harm is done, but eventually that 1 worst case scenario will occur and the question then is should the punishment fit the act or the injury?

i've just watched the video of that, and its made me physically sick, poor lad, poor poor lad.

He's suffered exactly the same injury I did. Same level, same operation, same induced coma. Bloody scary.



I hope the damage to his spinal cord isn't to the same extent as mine was.



I can't even bring myself to watch the game. Just deleted it straight off my Sky box.



My thoughts are with him and his family.

Just reported at half time in this mornings game he's been diagnosed as a quadriplegic..Terrible news www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6870148278

Just reported at half time in this mornings game he's been diagnosed as a quadriplegic..Terrible news www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6870148278

Very bad news indeed!! Sad day for RL around the world.

Not very accurate. He has quadriplegia but it is way too early to know the long term extent until the swelling from surgery goes down and more tests and rehab are done.



Still very sad though.

Maybe early, but still not the news anyone would have wanted to hear!