St Helens chairman Eamonn McManus hits back at Lance Hohaia
Monday 21 March 2016 19:29, UK
St Helens chairman Eamonn McManus has expressed his anger at recent comments made by former player Lance Hohaia.
Hohaia claimed in an interview with New Zealand's Sunday Herald newspaper that he was not offered a suitable period of rest to recover from concussion symptoms.
Hohaia was punched twice by Wigan's Ben Flower in the 2014 Super League Grand Final.
The former New Zealand international, who walked out of his contract with Saints and subsequently retired in April, also claims that he was offered only prescription medicines following the incident.
St Helens firmly denied Hohaia's allegations in a statement released last week and now McManus has also expressed his astonishment at the Kiwi's recent comments.
"We can all appreciate and sympathise with Lance over his feelings towards Ben Flower after his savage assault in the 2014 Grand Final against Wigan," McManus said in a statement released on the Saints' website.
"St Helens and its medical staff naturally did everything to treat and support him at that time and thereafter.
"However, his recent series of utterly false accusations about the club not supporting him and forcing him to play when he was not ready, is malicious and incorrect.
"His misstatements have wrongly damaged the respected and hard-earned reputation of one of the world's great rugby league clubs.
"However, I reserve my real anger for the damage and wrongdoing to our highly reputable and leading medical and rugby staff, each of whom could not have looked after Lance more professionally.
"Their reputations, livelihoods and lives have been wrongly maligned and undermined by his utterly untrue assertions."
McManus went on to confirm that St Helens would be taking legal action against Hohaia.
"We will not tolerate our good name and the valuable reputations and livelihoods of our top professional staff being wrongly damaged by falsehood," he said.
"We will take all appropriate actions to redress and remedy the situation. If we do not, the sport has no future."
