Haskell admits serious concerns
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:20
James Haskell has admitted that he feared he might have had permanent eye damage after being eye-gouged by Neill Best in Wasps 24-20 win over Northampton on September 20th.
The Saints flank has subsequently been suspended from action for 18 weeks and while the Rugby Football Union disciplinary panel found that the incident was not pre-meditated they said that Best had "effectively pulled Haskell's head upwards by the eye socket."
Haskell has yet to fully recover after the incident, some three weeks later, and admits he was extremely worried after the initial prognosis from the doctors.
"I was quite concerned. When an eye specialist tells you it might be permanent, and for two days you are effectively completely blind because you can't open one eye when the other one is so sore, it was worrying, " said Haskell.
The English international did though say that he held no grudge againt Best and now, given that he has been given that a punishment has been handed out, he considers the issue closed.
"I can read the bottom line of the eye test machine although it is not perfect yet. If I had lost my sight it would have been a different issue — but once the panel had handed out the punishment, as far as I was concerned that was it.
"You get caught, you get punished and it is the end of the story. Life is too short to worry about these things and hold a grudge. I am a pretty positive person."
