
A 30-year-old rugby player died after sustaining an “unsurvivable” injury during his team’s opening game last week, league officials in New Zealand have announced. Eugene Hanna was playing for the Glenora Bears’ Premier Reserves on May 2 when he sustained the injury before being taken to a hospital in Auckland, where he remained for 10 days before dying. The specific nature of the injury has not been released publicly, but the New Zealand Rugby League’s statement on his death mentioned its head injury protocols. His former club, the Australian rules football team Waitakere Magpies, said in a statement that Hanna’s death would leave a “big hole in our hearts” but that his legacy would live on there, especially a game-winning goal he scored in 2016. Another club, Lynn-Avon United AFC, wrote in a statement that Hanna “will be remembered as a genuine all-round good bloke.” His own club’s chairwoman, Janet Hunt, wrote in a statement that “there are not enough words to express the unimaginable loss and grief” that his loved ones are feeling.




















