Hohaia fires back at McManus

Lance Hohaia says St Helens chairman Eamonn McManus has made embarassing claims about his mental state and has defended his intention of speaking out.

McManus attacked Hohaia yesterday and the New Zealander has responded to the BBC today.

Hohaia said it was “embarrassing” that McManus “would try to draw a correlation between my mental state and my university marks”.

“I was provided with an outstanding tutor that I worked with weekly to help me with my assignments and did not sit the final exam due to my mental state,” he told told the BBC.

“I was awarded an aggregated score on my final exam based on my previous assignments out of compassion, which allowed me to pass.”

Hohaia said he has not publicly criticised the “highly regarded medical staff at Saints”.

“The lack of support that I felt was from management and was in reference specifically to how my retirement and the subsequent time after was handled, not how I was treated after the Grand Final incident,” he said.

“Eamonn has taken my wider statement about the club not supporting me as an attack against the entire club and the team, which is simply not the case.”

Hohaia said his intention of speaking out had been to raise concerns over the ways concussions are “recognised, measured, analysed, tracked and treated”.

“At the moment, there is a one-size-fits-all approach, which does not, in my opinion, suffice,” he said.

“It is a shame that this message has been lost in the tirade from Saints.”