Australia sevens captain James Stannard suffers fractured skull in Sydney incident
By Andy Charles
Last Updated: 30/03/18 8:48am
Australia's sevens captain James Stannard has been ruled out of the Commonwealth Games after suffering a fractured skull during an incident near Sydney.
The 35-year-old was injured when he hit his head on a pavement after reportedly being punched outside a kebab shop in the eastern suburb of Coogee.
Stannard was with some of his Australia team-mates at the time of the apparently unprovoked attack, having earlier been at a farewell lunch for departing coach Andy Friend.
He is reported to be in stable condition and conscious in St Vincent's Hospital, while a 22-year-old British national has been arrested over the attack.
Stannard had only recently been appointed as captain for the Commonwealth Games, replacing Lewis Holland who is also out of the tournament through injury.
Rugby Australia's high performance manager Ben Whitaker said: "He's not available for the Commonwealth Games and that's obviously a massive disappointment for all of us and James and his family and then once that's sorted, we'll look at how he can return to play.
"The reports we have at the moment is it was an unprovoked attack and very unfortunate because it's obviously it's got James in a pretty bad way health-wise.
"Obviously health comes first and footy second but it's cost him another Commonwealth Games, which is disappointing as well.
"He's an extremely important member of our team both on-field and off-field and the team will have to show again that we're a very resilient team to get through this to support James a) to get healthy and b) to work their way towards gold at the Commonwealth Games."
