Doctors Warn Of Serious Injuries

The spinal specialist who ruled Andrew Johns out for the rest of the season has challenged the National Rugby League (NRL) to investigate minimising the number of players allowed in a tackle.

Professor John Yeo is worried the "multiple tackle" is contributing to a high incidence of neck injuries, adding there may be other players in the competition unaware they are carrying an injury similar to that of the Newcastle kingpin.

"I'd like it looked at," Yeo told the League Correspondent.

"To get to the play-the-ball, you have two or three, sometimes four blokes, scrunching you into the ground.

"The challenge for league is to work out a way, while keeping the game as enthusiastic as it can be, to have some sort of modification of the multiple tackle. I can't see how it would change the game."

Yeo and colleagues at Royal North Shore Hospital have already worked with rugby on changing laws in the scrum to prevent neck injuries.

After a scan on Johns last Wednesday, Yeo determined the halfback had two protruding discs that were putting pressure on nerves and the spinal cord.

Johns was told even an innocuous tackle could have caused paralysis in an arm. He was immediately ruled out for the season and must wear a neck brace for the next six weeks.

The Knights, NSW and Australian captain is the latest in a growing list of players to suffer neck injuries in the NRL, including New Zealand Warriors hooker PJ Marsh.

In an another development connected to the Johns injury, Newcastle chairman and NRL director Michael Hill has called for compulsory neck scans for players.

"I'm certainly not a medical expert but I firmly believe it is an issue worth investigating at the highest levels and I will be bringing it up at the next board meeting," Hill said.

"I understand it is a policy which is already in force in the National Football League in America."

"We need to do whatever is reasonably possible to protect the health of our players."

Yeo believed other NRL players could have a similar injury to Johns.

"There are probably players out there with a few bulging discs that we don't know about and they don't know about," he said.