List of rugby league players who died during matches

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This is a list of professional rugby league players who died during matches, or shortly afterwards due to injuries received/incidents during matches.

Not included are non-first team players, amateur players or deaths unrelated to playing.

Deaths[edit]

Date Name Age Team Notes
14 August 1897 Joseph Gerrard 20 St Helens Gerrard died after breaking his neck in a practice match.[1]
3 November 1902 John Richardson 21 Cumberland Richardson, who played at club level for Whitehaven Recreation, died of peritonitis after being accidentally kicked in the abdomen, a kick which ruptured his bowel, during a County Championship match between Cumberland and Yorkshire on 1 November.[2]
19 December 1906 Harry Myers 31 Keighley Myers fractured his spine in a collision with an opposing player in a match against Dewsbury on 3 November 1906. Died in hospital seven weeks later.[3]
3 December 1921 Pat Collins 32 Keighley Collins collapsed and died shortly after leaving the pitch in a game against Batley Bulldogs. Coroner ruled he had died from syncope.[4]
4 October 1930 Stanley Baldwin 24 Rochdale Hornets Baldwin died of a brain stem injury incurred when attempting a tackle in a game against Oldham on 3 October. Baldwin did not recover consciousness after the incident and was taken to hospital where he died the following day.[5]
8 June 1936 Henry Berry 27 Streatham and Mitcham Berry was kicked in the mouth playing against Warrington on 25 April 1936. The injury became infected with an abscess forming in his jaw. Berry was hospitalised and died of asphyxiation after being given an anaesthetic for an operation to relive the abscess.[6]
28 September 1946 Frank Townsend 21 Wakefield Trinity Townsend was injured in a tackle playing against Featherstone Rovers and was helped off the field. He was later taken to hospital, unconscious, where he died of a brain haemorrhage.[7]
12 April 1947 Hudson Irving 34 Halifax Irving collapsed and died of a heart attack due to a blood clot during the second half of Halifax's match against Dewsbury.[8]
28 November 1955 Dennis Norton 22 Castleford Norton collapsed during Castleford's match against the touring New Zealand side on 16 November.[9] Norton was subsequently admitted to Pontefract Infirmary where he died on 28 November from a coronary thrombosis.[10]
15 April 1969 John Davies 28 Dewsbury Davies died of a heart attack during a match against Batley. The coroner returned an open verdict as he could not be sure that an injury sustained in a match two years earlier did not have some effect on Davies's health.[11]
7 May 1976 Jeff Whiteside 22 Swinton Whiteside broke his neck playing in the first half of a reserve (or A game) against Rochdale Hornets on 3 March 1976. Initially hospitalised in Rochdale, he was later transferred to a specialist spinal unit at Southport hospital in a critical condition.[12] He died at the Southport hospital two months after the accident. The direct cause of death was a haemorrhage from an ulcer in the windpipe that had formed after an operation following the accident.[13]
24 April 1977 Chris Sanderson 22 Leeds Sanderson died after choking on his own vomit after a tackle early on in a game against Salford. Despite being taken immediately to hospital, doctors were unable to revive him.[14]
3 May 2015 Danny Jones 29 Keighley Cougars Jones suffered a cardiac arrest during a match against London Skolars and died in hospital shortly afterwards.[15]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Fatal football accident at St Helens". Liverpool Echo. No. 5542. 16 August 1897. p. 4 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  2. ^ "A Cumberland football player killed at a Leeds match". Yorkshire Post. No. 17276. 6 November 1902. p. 4 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  3. ^ "Football Field Tragedy". Shipley Times. No. 1592. 28 December 1906. p. 3 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. ^ "Footballer's death". Northern Daily Mail. No. 13611. 6 December 1921. p. 3 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. ^ "Footballer's death". Runcorn Weekly News. 10 October 1930. p. 1 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  6. ^ "Death after tackle in rugby league game". The Streatham News. No. 2427. 26 June 1936. p. 8 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  7. ^ "R.L. player 'sandwiched'". Yorkshire Evening Post. No. 17448. 1 October 1946. p. 8 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  8. ^ "RL Player Died From Blood-clot". Hull Daily Mail. No. 19161. 17 April 1947. p. 5 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  9. ^ "Castleford Rugby League forward dies". Halifax Daily Courier. No. 23996. 28 November 1955. p. 5 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  10. ^ "Inquest on football player". Halifax Daily Courier. No. 23998. 30 November 1955. p. 7 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  11. ^ "Old injury may have killed Rugby star". Daily Mirror. No. 20343. 23 May 1969. p. 23 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  12. ^ "Winger 'critical'". Hull Daily Mail. No. 28093. 5 March 1976. p. 24 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  13. ^ "The tackle that sentenced a player to death". Manchester Evening News. No. 33310. 18 May 1976. p. 5 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  14. ^ "Freak RL clash that killed". Manchester Evening News. No. 33633. 3 June 1977. p. 5 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  15. ^ "Jones had undetected heart disease". BBC Sport. 7 May 2015. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
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