Northampton Saints has issued the following statement following the publication of the Concussion Management Review Group (CMRG) regarding the on-pitch treatment of George North during the team’s Aviva Premiership game against Leicester on Saturday, December 3rd.

Northampton Saints accepts the conclusion that George should not have been allowed to return to the field of play, but is pleased that the CMRG has reflected our concerns about the current technologies and processes available to medical teams when assessing concussion. The club believes that this is now an opportunity for the whole rugby community to reflect on the CMRG’s recommendations to ensure the highest levels of player safety and well-being.

The club’s management remains absolutely confident in the expertise, professionalism and commitment of our medical teams and is encouraged to see that the CMRG has found that the medics had nothing other than player welfare in mind during this incident. The club continues to take player safety extremely seriously and now looks forward to working with the CMRG and the wider rugby community to improve current injury assessment practices so that these sorts of incidents can hopefully be avoided in the future.

In the meantime, the club continues to offer George its full support and looks forward to seeing him on the pitch again as soon as he is ready.