Sunday 20 March 2016 13:50, UK
Sam Burgess says he was 'extremely lucky' to avoid suffering a serious neck injury while playing for the South Sydney Rabbitohs on Sunday.
Burgess was hurt after appearing to duck his head into a tackle with Dragons prop Mike Cooper, going to ground and lying motionless on the rain-sodden turf at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The game was stopped for a significant period of time while the Englishman was stabilised, lifted on to a medicab and taken off the field before being taken to hospital for scans.
Burgess wrote on Twitter: "Initial scan results are positive. Thank you all for messages of support - feeling extremely lucky tonight. A few days of rest now."
His mother Julie and close friend Russell Crowe, who is joint owner of the Rabbitohs, were visibly distressed as they watched events unfold from the stands.
Burgess' update confirmed what coach Michael Maguire had said about the potential issue after the game, which ended in an 8-6 Dragons victory.
"At the moment he has gone for scans. The doctor was pretty positive, which was good news," Maguire said.
"He had a bit of tingling down one arm and they go through all the right processes when you have an incident like that, but from what I've been told he (Burgess) was pretty positive when they put him in the ambulance, so we'll have to wait and see about the scans.
"He was in a bit of pain, he got compressed there quite heavily, but as I've been told he's in a pretty good frame of mind."
Rabbitohs captain Greg Inglis added: "You don't want to see that from any player, to go down like that. When he's lying there motionless and you can't really say much, it is worrying."
