The Rugby Football League’s Benevolent Fund has promised to make a “lifelong commitment” to support the Hull KR forward Mose Masoe, after helping lead the fight for him to remain in hospital to continue his recovery from a career-ending spinal injury. Masoe was told a fortnight ago that because of the increased demand for beds for coronavirus patients at Wakefield’s Pinderfields hospital he would have to continue his rehabilitation at home, despite the player insisting that he was not ready to leave hospital.
The 30-year-old has been in the spinal unit since suffering the injury in a game against Wakefield in January, but will now be able to stay in hospital after the benevolent fund, a charity that provides assistance to rugby league players and their families after life-changing injuries, intervened.
“We were part of a group who insisted it was wrong to send him home,” Steve Ball, the fund’s general manager, told the Guardian. “It’s so important that people like him continue to get physiotherapy so his rehab stays well and truly on track. That would be impossible at home with the current social-distancing guidelines. He’s made incredible progress and thankfully the spinal unit has been able to continue as normal.”
Ball added that Masoe will receive support from the benevolent fund as long as he stays in this country. “We pay for everything we can, and we have made him a lifelong commitment that while he is here, he will get our backing and our help,” he said. “We have guys who were injured in the 1970s and we support them the same. We’re not a wealthy sport but we’re rich in our values.”
The hope is that Masoe can now stay in hospital for the entirety of his rehabilitation. “We are hoping so, though obviously Pinderfields have stressed it is always under review,” Ball said. “It’s important for people like Mose that we ensure he gets the capacity and treatment he needs.”
Masoe has made remarkable progress since his injury. Initially paralysed from the shoulders down and able to move only his head, he is now walking with crutches. “We normally are notified of serious incidents fairly quickly and within a day of Mose’s injury, I was by his bedside and holding his hand,” Ball added. “He was laid prone in bed and I told him we would do everything we could to help, because he was genuinely fearful for his family.
“Hull KR have agreed to honour his contract but we will sort everything else. When it looked like he was leaving hospital we paid for a stairlift to be put in at his home. His wife is self-isolating because she’s six months pregnant, so we’ve got Mose an iPad to speak to her and his family back in Australia. These sorts of commitments define who we are as a fund, and who we are as a sport.”
