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Worcester insist they are standing by Michael Fatialofa as he faces £100,000 medical bills

Michael Fatialofa suffered a C4 vertebrae fracture and spinal contusion in January.(Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

Worcester Warriors today vowed to “continue to go over and above what is expected” in their support of Michael Fatialofa, who is facing medical bills of £100,000 as he recovers from a serious neck injury suffered against Saracens. Warriors co-owners Colin Goldring and Jason Whittingham have confirmed to RugbyPass that they are funding an extension of the visas for Michael and his wife Tatiana even though the player’s contract with the club has ended.

Fatialofa is also receiving specialist rehabilitation treatment from Warriors following his remarkable progress after an injury which saw him receive extended specialist hospital treatment and has now resulted in bills of £100,000.

In their statement the co-owners say: “We are concerned and disappointed to hear that Michael has received a bill for unpaid medical fees. There are no unpaid fees owed by the club, our booking made by RugbyCare has already been paid in full. But we will work closely with the hospital and local Clinical Commissioning Group to understand any issues and help resolve the situation to ensure that Michael can concentrate solely on his rehabilitation at Sixways with the full and continued support of the club.

“We will continue to go over and above what is expected of the club to support Michael and Tatiana, financially and practically.”

Warriors paid for four weeks of care at the Royal Buckinghamshire Private Hospital when no NHS bed was available at Stoke Mandeville following his release from the Intensive Care Unit of St Mary’s Hospital in London.

The club has revealed in their statement: “At the expiry of the four weeks the NHS were still not ready to provide a bed and Royal Bucks had to continue providing care until the NHS was ready to transfer Michael. In situations such as this a claim is made to the Clinical Commissioning Group which the club’s doctor, Nick Tait, made sure was done. 

“The club heard nothing further and RugbyCare have confirmed they were never asked to authorise or fund a further extension by the Royal Bucks. Michael remained in the Royal Bucks until he was discharged in early June and has since returned to Sixways where he is continuing his rehabilitation with Ryan four days a week.”

Warriors are planning to stage a fund raising day for Fatialofa when Premiership matches resume to help boost a fund for the player, which currently stands at £40,000.

The full statement from Worcester Warriors co-owners Colin Goldring and Jason Whittingham: “Warriors are, and always have been, committed to supporting Michael Fatialofa in his remarkable and inspiring recovery from the serious spinal injuries he suffered in the Gallagher Premiership match at Saracens on January 4. 

“Representatives of the club, including the medical team and the owners, were with Michael and his family at the hospital on the night of the accident and continue to support Michael now. We are supporting Michael’s career after rugby, funding the extension of visas for Michael and his wife, Tatiana, even though he is out of contract with the club and providing specialist rehabilitation by the club’s Head of Medical Ryan Kehoe, the most senior member of the Warriors medical team. 

“When Michael was discharged from the Intensive Care Unit of St Mary’s Hospital in London in February there were no available beds in specialist spinal units through the NHS at Stoke Mandeville Hospital for two to three weeks. The club was asked to fund the first two to three weeks of private treatment in the Royal Buckinghamshire Private Hospital next door which benefited from the same consultants and had beds available.

“The club agreed to pay for four weeks in case it was needed through the RugbyCare scheme, which spreads the cost for the club. 

“Stoke Mandeville is a world class spinal unit but the club had planned to increase Michael’s physiotherapy hours given his needs as a professional athlete. At the expiry of the four weeks the NHS were still not ready to provide a bed and Royal Bucks had to continue providing care until the NHS was ready to transfer Michael.

“In situations such as this a claim is made to the Clinical Commissioning Group which the club’s doctor, Nick Tait, made sure was done.

“The club heard nothing further and RugbyCare have confirmed they were never asked to authorise or fund a further extension by the Royal Bucks. Michael remained in the Royal Bucks until he was discharged in early June and has since returned to Sixways where he is continuing his rehabilitation with Ryan four days a week. 

“We are concerned and disappointed to hear that Michael has received a bill for unpaid medical fees. There are no unpaid fees owed by the club, our booking made by RugbyCare has already been paid in full. But we will work closely with the hospital and local Clinical Commissioning Group to understand any issues and help resolve the situation to ensure that Michael can concentrate solely on his rehabilitation at Sixways with the full and continued support of the club.

“We will continue to go over and above what is expected of the club to support Michael and Tatiana, financially and practically.

 “The fund-raising day for Michael which was scheduled to take place in April but which was postponed because of the Coronavirus pandemic will be rearranged once we have fixtures for the 2020/21 season.

“Shirts, which were specially-commissioned for that day, will also go on sale shortly with the proceeds supporting the fund that has been set up for Michael which has already raised more than £40,000. 

“Michael is also working closely with Lynette Cutting, our excellent Education Officer, on planning for a career away from rugby. We are proud to provide this service to our players and it is one that the vast majority benefit from, helping them to forge successful careers – inside and outside of rugby – once they have stopped, or been forced to stop, playing.

“Last year Warriors set up an Ambassador Programme and a Past Players Charitable Trust to raise money to provide support former Warriors players from the professional era and their family members in their hour of need.

 “We appreciate the contribution that every single player that has worn a Warriors shirt over the years has made to the success of the club over the years. Michael and Tatiana are important and valued members of the Warriors Family and we will ensure that they are supported and cared for.”

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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