MELBOURNE, June 27 (Reuters) – Former England back-rower
Michael Lipman has quit the Melbourne Rebels after suffering
severe headaches and “haziness” following a concussion during
the Super Rugby season.
Lipman had informed his team mates this week, Melbourne’s
The Age newspaper reported, but the decision had been brewing
for some time, a Melbourne Rebels spokesman said on Wednesday.
“He won’t be playing any of the remaining games in the
season. It’s an unfortunate end to a great career,” he said.
Born in London and raised in Sydney, Lipman was a member of
Australia’s under-21 squad but returned to England where he
played more than 100 matches for English Premiership club Bath
and 10 tests for England following his debut against New Zealand
in 2004.
He returned to Australia in 2010 to play in the domestic
Shute Shield competition before being recruited by the Rebels in
their foundation year last year.
“The bottom line is that throughout my career I’ve had so
many bangs to the head and I’ve had so much concussion … the
last couple have been the icing on the cake,” Lipman told The
Age.
“I’ve just had too many. Enough’s enough and when you’re
body’s talking to you like it is now, you’ve got to listen to it
and be sensible because the hardest thing in anything really is
to admit that your time is up and to come to terms with it.
“(The headache) is always there and you can feel the
pressure in your head and when you start running and training it
makes it a lot worse.
“You’re just very confused really, and you’re hazy and
you’re very clouded and not many things make sense.
Continued…
