Bath Director of Rugby Stuart Hooper has revealed that Sam Underhill’s late withdrawal from last Saturday’s Gallagher Premiership win away to Newcastle was due to illness.
“He is absolutely fine,” said Hooper about a forward who has suffered a number of concussion problems lately in the last few months.
“He was just sick for a couple of days. It is just one of those decisions that we made based on his fitness. Obviously the concussion against Leinster, he was fine afterwards but we treat it in the right way.
“He was then going to go and see the specialist but he then had covid and that was back when you still had to isolate. Then he is inside for ten days and we go from there.
"I can see from the outside him not being involved against Newcastle would probably wave a few red flags but I can promise you he is absolutely fine, he is raring to go.”
Below, we look at five rugby stars who were forced to step down, considered retirement or hung up their boots altogether due to concussion in 2021/22.
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#1. Beauden Barrett (New Zealand) - Returned after lay-off
The All Blacks, who has twice been named world player of the year, was sidelined after taking a blow to the face during an attempted tackle on Ireland's Andrew Conway back in November.
The incident resulted in a nasty concussion, and the symptoms were so severe that the 30-year-old admits he considered hanging up his boots.
He told French publication, XV Mondial : “For two weeks, things have been much better. But throughout the off-season, I had migraines, 80 to 90 per cent of the time. Today, it tends to fade, they have become rarer.
“I will gradually resume contact training, I hope to play again in three weeks against the Chiefs. I thought it might be the end of my career. When you feel sluggish 99 per cent of the day, trying several ways to get better, but nothing works, you assume the worst.
“And then you hear about teammates who have to end their careers because of concussions, it’s more and more frequent. I thought it was my turn.
“You learn to get used to small headaches, a bit like a mild hangover. It’s very frustrating because when you wake up, in principle, you should feel refreshed and ready.”