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'I don't know if I'd be here without those blokes' - attack victim Stannard faces media
Speaking for the first time to the media, Australia Men’s Sevens captain James Stannard says he is ‘heart broken’ to miss the Common Wealth games following an unprovoked assault that left him with a fractured skill.
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Stannard is recovering in Sydney from the head injury he suffered as the victim of a one-punch attack, but is aiming to be back on the field for a last hurrah at the Sevens World Cup in San Francisco in July.
The 35-year-old was due to lead his country in the upcoming Gold Coast Games on home soil as Australia sevens skipper following an injury sustained by Lewis Holland.
“It would’ve been James’ third Commonwealth Games said Rugby Australia high performance manager Ben Whitaker.
“He’s an extremely important member of our team both on-field and off-field and the team will have to show again that we’re a very resilient team to get through this to support James a) to get healthy and b) to work their way towards gold at the Comm Games.”
Stannard was due to retire this season and Whitaker said it remains to be seen whether he will play again.
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“We don’t know that at this stage. We know that right now he needs some time to heal,” added Whitaker.
“He’s not available for the Commonwealth Games and that’s obviously a massive disappointment for all of us and James and his family and then once that’s sorted, we’ll look at how he can return to play.”
Cult-figure Stannard became the leading Australian points scorer in World Series history when he overtook Peter Miller’s tally of 631 in Wellington in January 2016. Stannard was a member of the Australian side that won a Silver medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India and captained the side that won the London Sevens at Twickenham in the same year.
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