PLAYER COLLAPSED DURING RUGBY MATCH
A RUGBY player is sitting out the rest of the season after a tackle resulted in her teammates having to perform CPR on her.
Ashleigh Shephard, 25, who plays for Darlington Ladies, said it was ‘just a normal rugby match’ when she was hit by a tackle which caused her to stop breathing in their game against Didsbury, on Sunday, February 20.
She said: “I passed the ball off and caught my leg mid run, then I hit the floor.
“I ended up on my back, my head was hurting but I stood back up.
“I tried to take a few steps but then I just took a funny turn and it was then I stopped responding.”
It was at this point two of Ashleigh’s team-mates Hayley Cornforth and Hannah Picknett came to the rescue.
Ashleigh added: “Hayley has been trained by the army and Hannah is a firefighter, so they instinctively knew what to do.
“The whole team helped too, people were getting coats and holding umbrellas, while others were keeping my sevenyear-old son occupied inside so he did not see what was going on.”
The ladies performed CPR for around five minutes until an ambulance arrived.
A statement on the club’s Facebook page after the incident said: “You might of heard that during our game yesterday one of our team mates stopped breathing
after a head knock. We are very grateful for our two heroines who knew what to do without hesitation and saved her life.
“Thankfully she is going to be ok but has a long recovery ahead of her.
“Thank you to everyone who has sent kind words and messages.”
Ashleigh took up rugby in 2019 and it is not the first time she has suffered injury.
However, she is still determined to get back playing and said she would ‘go back tomorrow’ if she could.
Unfortunately that will not be possible, as following the concussion she has been told to rest up for 12 weeks.
That means she will be out for the rest of the season.
She said: “I will be watching and cheering them on from the sidelines, I am so very lucky to have a rugby family who go above and beyond for each other.”