Concussion keeps Chiefs trio sidelined

Charlie Ngatai is progressing well and is being touted as a decent chance of playing against the Waratahs next weekend.

But for now, he and fellow midfield options Sam McNicol and Stephen Donald will miss the Chiefs’ Super Rugby match against the Blues in Auckland tomorrow night, with concussion.

The trio were all left out of the side for the match at Eden Park, with the coaching staff playing it cautiously despite positive signs.

Ngatai will sit out for a second week running, having made it back after a year’s absence before headaches returned early last week, while McNicol and Donald both failed head injury assessments in the loss to the Crusaders in Fiji last Friday night.

McNicol’s knock was of particular angst, having already suffered a concussion in the pre-season, which was his fourth in six months.

Assistant coach Neil Barnes said in this day and age there were certainly no thoughts to taking a gamble with any of the players.

‘‘The doctors have given us an assessment of all those guys and a couple of them are actually doing really really well. But we’d all rather be over-cautious nowadays and let them have an extra week under their belt before we make a decision about playing.

‘‘So, to be honest, we didn’t even consider any of them,’’ he said.

Asked which were the two players progressing quicker than the other, Barnes didn’t want to divulge, but added that the ‘other’ player wasn’t too much of a worry though.

‘‘I’d love to give you an answer, but it’s not my place to be giving people’s medical situations out,’’ Barnes said this week.

‘‘It’s just two of them were probably good enough to be considered to play, if we were just looking at how they’re feeling, the other guy’s not quite at that stage yet, but it’s not like he isn’t travelling too well. All of them are going OK at the moment, but two of them are real good.’’

It seems Ngatai falls into the ’’real good’’ category, after his scare following a fine return against the Reds in New Plymouth on May 6.

‘‘He got better real quick, but going on his history, we just haven’t even considered him for this week. But I’d imagine he’ll definitely be in the picture for the week after, depending on what the medical people tell us,’’ Barnes said.