Rugby club"s star centre hospitalised after being bitten by horseflies

Comments (0)

AT six foot and 13 stone, stopping Old Centralians star centre Liam Hemming on the rugby field is no mean feat.

But, after being attacked by a plague of horseflies while playing tag rugby on the club’s waterlogged pitch, the 22-year-old has found himself hospitalised and off work for four weeks.

Battling an abscess which formed over one of his bites, the plumber is among a number of players at the club to have been prescribed antibiotics to treat the bites in the past month.

The incident has left Liam and other members of the club bemoaning the lack of an all-weather pitch, which they say is sorely needed to avoid something like this happening again.

“It’s just a nightmare because I want things to go back to normal,” said Liam.

“I was in hospital overnight and I didn’t expect that from a horsefly bites.”

He added: “I was looking forward to getting back to work last Thursday but I had to go into hospital all over again. It’s so frustrating.”

Liam is one of his Saintbridge side’s top players, winning numerous awards including player of the year and top try scorer.

His mum Julie Taylor said she was devastated when she saw the results of Liam’s encounter with horseflies.

“It’s been a nightmare for him because he just wants to go back to work,” she said.

Liam said the club was promised the use of an all-weather 4G pitch to be installed at the nearby Gloucester Academy.

However, the £680,000 project has been put on hold while the school finds funding.

Liam said: “It’s just ridiculous that they keep stalling on the 4G pitch. This would have helped to stop this from happening.”

Old Cents’ vice-chairman Morecambe Price said an all-weather facility was desperately needed.

“It would solve this problem and would benefit the whole community,” he said.

“But it looks like it is being put on the backburner due to a lack of funding. It would be great to get a grant from the RFU.”

Steve Brimfield, director of operations and finance at Gloucester Academy, said: “With the World cup coming to Gloucester in 2015, and with Gloucester being the home of rugby, this remains an important initiative and we would like to develop plans for an all-weather rugby pitch at the site in order to meet the needs of the school and the wider community.

“We will be exploring options through Sport England, the local authority under Section 106 monies, as well as our partner organisation Saintbridge Rugby Club and other rugby clubs.”

Article source: https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/rugby-late-pyrgos-try-helps-scotland-triumph-argentina-230021993--spt.html

Rugby club"s star centre hospitalised after being bitten by horseflies