A 16-YEAR-OLD rugby player is fighting for his life in Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, while two other players have been hospitalised after being injured in matches in the past week.
Jay Ryles-Jenkins, from Chippenham, collapsed after his Sheldon School U16 team won the county cup last Wednesday.
On Sunday a 12-year-old boy was taken to Salisbury District Hospital by the Wiltshire Air Ambulance with neck and spinal inquiries after he was injured in a mini-rugby festival at Warminster Rugby Club.
The helicopter landed at about 2pm and the boy, who was from Gillingham, Dorset, and playing for North Dorset was treated and flown to Salisbury District Hospital.
On the same afternoon Corsham player David Murdock, 15, needed hospital treatment after he was injured playing for the under 15 team.
Coach Pete Coombs said: “We put in the call to the emergency services and about two minutes later a rapid response vehicle arrived, followed by an ambulance. The ambulance technicians felt his neck to check whether he still had sensitivity in it and checked his arms as well but he had started to lose the feeling in his left arm.”
The paramedics decided that David, who lives in Neston, should go to hospital. The player, a pupil at Abbeyfield School, Chippenham, was taken to the Royal United Hospital in Bath but was later allowed home in the evening with muscle damage in his neck.
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