England prop Kyle Sinckler has admitted he has no recollection of the 2019 World Cup final despite watching much of it from the sidelines.
Sinckler collided with teammate Maro Itoje during an attempted double tackle on Makazole Mapimpi in the third minute of the final and was knocked unconscious. He walked off the field after regaining consciousness and watched the remainder of the final from the sidelines.
But the explosive and outspoken 26-year-old has now come out and said the concussion he suffered was so severe that he actually has no memory of the match.
‘I didn’t really know what was going on,’ he told the Press Association.
‘I can’t remember anything really from the final. They said I came back out, but I can’t remember that.’
He says he struggled to come to terms with how his tournament ended and it took almost four weeks to deal with the cruel misfortune of seeing the biggest match of his life cut short by an accidental collision.
‘It took three or four weeks to get over the final. It was dark. You go through phases where you’re distraught, feeling sorry for yourself and down in the dumps,’ Sinckler explained.
‘It was an innocuous incident which was just meant to be, but it was really, really tough. You ask yourself, “Why me? I’ve trained so hard to get to this moment. I’ve dreamed it, this is my life.”
‘But then I snapped out of it, realising that you can either be the guy who is always feeling sorry for yourself or use it as motivation to push on.’
Photo: Getty Images
