By Adrian Frater, Staff Reporter
Griffiths
WESTERN BUREAU:
NATIONAL PLAYER Winston Griffiths, who was injured in an off-the-ball incident in Wednesday night's National A League fixture between his team, Rivoli United, and Seba United at Jarrett Park is now a patient in the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH).
Griffiths was examined on the sidelines by a doctor after the game and was rushed to the hospital when Rivoli officials discovered he was experiencing memory loss.
According to coach Harold Thomas, Griffiths kept asking the same question over and over and they became concerned and rushed him to the hospital.
"He kept on asking what was the score in the game and right away we realised that his memory was affected," said Thomas, who said some of players wept openly when the reality of Griffiths' injury began to dawn on them.
"It really hurt to know that a national player could be treated in such a disgraceful manner by another player," Thomas said.
When contacted last night, a source at the CRH said Griffiths was admitted to the institution shortly after 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday. While refusing to go into too much detail about the player's injury, the source said Griffiths came in suffering from concussion and was promptly taken for an x-ray.
"While the x-ray did not reveal any fracture, there are signs that there might be some amount of swelling towards the base of his brain," said the source.
"We can't say anything conclusive at this time but we will be running some additional tests on him (today). Hopefully, we should be able to determine the full extent of the injury."
"We are quite worried about the state of the player's health because this incident could jeopardise his future in the game," said Thomas.
"I am going to submit a report on the incident to the JFF because what happened was not football."
Late yesterday, officials at the hospital said Griffith was resting comfortably. The Gleaner was also told friends and family had visited him during the course of the day.
