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Leicester Tigers promise to rally around academy flanker Taylor Gough who is in intensive care after road accident

Taylor Gough - Leicester Tigers promise to rally around academy flanker Taylor Gough who is in intensive care after road accident - GETTY IMAGES
Taylor Gough - Leicester Tigers promise to rally around academy flanker Taylor Gough who is in intensive care after road accident - GETTY IMAGES

Leicester Tigers have promised to rally around Taylor Gough, their young academy player, who remains in intensive care after being involved in a significant road accident last month.

Gough is currently “suffering from paralysis and unable to move his legs” after sustaining several injuries. The 20-year-old signed a senior academy contract with his hometown club in February and made his debut in the Premiership Cup match against Northampton in January 2019.

England prop Ellis Genge described Gough as a “f------ legend” and tweeted a link to a JustGiving Page, which has raised more than £5,000 in just a few hours. After weeks of turmoil at the club, Gough’s injury has had a profound impact on the staff.

“All of us were impacted, from the playing squad to the back room, by this news,” Geordan Murphy, Leicester’s director of rugby, said. “Taylor is popular with everyone at this club and all of us are thinking of him and his family during this time.

“The club has supported him however we can at the moment and will continue to do so, for however long Taylor and his family need. His team-mates, especially those who he came through the junior ranks with, have had this on their minds during what has already been a challenging period and I can’t speak highly enough about each of them and the way they have shown support and compassion for Taylor and his family, ahead of anything else.”

Flanker Gough had trials at Leicester City FC before taking up rugby and modelling his game on Neil Back. He is being supported by the Matt Hampson Foundation set up by the former Tigers prop who was paralysed from the neck down in 2005 after a scrum collapsed.

“He is a popular member of our squad and Taylor is one of us. And at Tigers, we look after our own,” Peter Tom, the Leicester chairman, said. “I have no doubt the Tigers community, rugby community and Leicester community will rally around him and his family as they navigate this tough time.”