AN Otley player has been released from hospital after suffering a head injury.

Replacement George Bowen was taken off the pitch in a neck brace during the second half of their 41-0 defeat at home to Wharfedale in National League Two North on Saturday.

The concussion occurred in the 54th minute when Bowen was attempting to tackle Wharfedale fly half Louis Verity but took a knee to the head.

Referee Nathan Haworth (RFU) quickly stopped the game and told the player to remain still.

Physios were attending to Bowen, who apparently stopped breathing for 20 seconds and was out cold for about a minute, within 15 seconds.

After a 14-minute stoppage, Bowen, who came on in the 26th minute, was carried off the pitch on a spinal board and taken into Otley RUFC’s medical room.

Eventually an ambulance arrived and Bowen was taken to Leeds General Infirmary, where, after tests and observation, it was decided that he didn’t need a scan.

Otley RUFC chairman Paul Mackie said: “I spoke to George on Sunday morning and, apart from feeling woozy from the head injury, he was fine and has now started the 21-day return-to-play protocol.”

The hosts, in front of a season’s best crowd of 529, were trailing 22-0 when Bowen was injured and went on to concede 19 further points.

Otley’s head coach Kyle Dench said: “Rob Baldwin (Wharfedale’s No 8) said afterwards that it did not seem like a 41-0 game, and I feel the same.

“Maybe we overplayed at times but that is how we want to play.”

Flanker Nick Fontaine, who was replaced by Bowen but then came on for him after the injury, said: “That break in play knocked the wind out of us a bit. We wanted to turn their big players around with our kicking game, but penalties killed us, as they have for the past few weeks as we are giving teams field position.”

Otley were only trailing 10-0 at half-time to two unconverted tries but conceded a try straight after the interval and another 11 minutes into the second half.

“The fourth try was the killer for me but Kyle says that we need to cut the penalties out and we missed a few tackles, where we needed to go lower rather than higher.

“It is difficult to get the warm-up right for everybody as some like to chill, some like to be vocal, some like to be giddy, but the warm-up felt flat.

“We haven’t had the urgency since the Rotherham away game on November 4 and we hope to bring that back for the last nine matches, starting with Lymm away on Saturday.

While Wharfedale climbed one place to fourth on the back of this derby victory, Otley dropped a place to ninth, being overtaken by Hull, who defeated visitors Preston Grasshoppers 40-33 for a maximum points haul.