McKinnon’s spinal surgeon warns NRL over not charging Melbourne prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona

The spinal surgeon who worked with Alex McKinnon believes a dangerous precedent has been set by not charging Melbourne prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona for his controversial on Dean Britt.

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One of Australia’s leading spinal surgeons — who has worked with Alex McKinnon — says the NRL has set a dangerous precedent by not charging Melbourne prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona for his controversial crusher tackle.

Your columnist sent vision of the 115kg Storm prop’s crunching hit on 98kg South Sydney forward Dean Britt to Dr Jonathon Ball, who is a neurosurgeon and spinal surgeon at Royal North Shore and North Shore Private Hospitals.

Ball said it would be “quite easy” for this type of tackle to result in a “significant” spinal injury.

Ball added his fear would be that allowing this tackle to escape sanction could blur the boundaries.

The Storm were also under fire yesterday after vision emerged on Fox Sports of Asofa-Solomona, Jesse Bromwich and Tui Kamikamica leading with their elbows while running the ball in last Sunday’s win over the Rabbitohs.

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Asofa-Solomona escaped punishment for this tackle on Britt.

Those incidents also escaped the attention of the NRL’s match review committee.

Asofa-Solomona’s tackle looks to be a deliberate style of tackle when the defending player makes first contact around the head and then drags them to the turf while putting pressure on the back of the neck.

There was also a similar tackle from Jesse Bromwich that was penalised but also escaped sanction.

“Given the fact the league itself has tried to cut down on dangerous tackles, be they spear tackles and other types, the fact they let a tackle like that slide I think is of concern,” Ball said, “because it is sending a message that these dangerous tackles may be okay, which should not be the case.”

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McKinnon is one of three rugby league players Ball has worked with in recent years who have suffered serious spinal injuries.

Ball explained that was not necessarily the most dangerous looking tackle that resulted in the worst injuries.

“The tackles that are of concern are those that involve what we call loading, or force applied down through the neck, or particularly those that involve excessive bending,” Ball explained.

“The two in combinations are obviously the worse mechanism.

Melbourne have come back under fire for their tackling techniques. Photo by Tony Feder/Getty Images.

“I think it is actually quite easy to go wrong. Often it is just a freak combination of angles and forces and it will lead to serious injury.

“Some of the nastiest spinal fractures or the nastiest spinal injuries that we have seen in the last few years, particularly in league, have been actually from tackles that aren’t always that forceful.

“I know I have been involved in three in the last five years and none of them have been overly violent (tackles).”

McKinnon suffered his injury while playing against Melbourne in 2014.