Former New Zealand star Shaun Johnson has called out the circumstances that led to Eli Katoa's frightening injury scare in Sunday's New Zealand vs Tonga Pacific Championships clash at Eden Park Stadium.
Katoa suffered seizure activity on the bench and required oxygen as he was stretchered from the field.
The Melbourne Storm forward was immediately taken to hospital where he had surgery and is now recovering.
"It was scary scenes," Johnson, who was working at the game for the media, told The Play On Sport Show podcast.
"I feel a bit angry about the situation … I don't get how it can even get to that point.
"There's going to be fallout over this, there's going to be some heads that will roll because I do not know how Eli Katoa was actually even allowed to take the field."
Katoa suffered his first head knock in the pre-game warm-up after colliding with Lehi Hopoate.
He was assessed by staff on field but was deemed to have passed his HIA, something that Johnson finds incredulous.
"In warm-up he [gets] a shoulder to the head, like, smack bang to the face and like, loose body to the ground. He's not sleeping on the ground, he sort of rolls over … but it's a limp body to the ground," Johnson explained.
"Now all I thought, straight away when I saw that was, OK, if that happened in a game or if that happened at training during the week, he's done.
"It's done … they probably even go cat one on it … you're just done bro, like, come on, player welfare, we're looking after you.
"But then it comes through the head piece that he's passed his HIA and me and Richie, we look at each other and we go, 'No way.'
"You want to see the best players playing, but when you [were watching] you felt sick over the incident. He's not right. It was a bad one, it wasn't a mediocre one, it was a bad one in warm-up."
Katoa went on to suffer two more head knocks in the match, with Johnson increasingly concerned about the impact.
"He takes another one in the first half and he's pulled off [the pitch] now I'm like, 'OK, you've just had your second head knock, it's, bro, we're going to take the decision out of your hands now.'
"Don't even give him the possibility, don't give him the chance of passing this.
"But they do it, and he passes.
"Sure enough, he rolls back out there … but then I see him take a third one.
"I actually felt proper sick. It was yuck.
"They pull him off, I don't even know, I don't want to speculate, I don't know if that was his HIA pull off. But what we see from the sideline is really alarming."
Johnson said that every player would want to keep playing, no matter what the circumstances, but it was the duty of the medical staff to take the decision out of their hands.
"I hope it never gets to that point again for any of our players again," Johnson said.
"I don't like our players not being looked after."
Tonga coach Kristian Woolf defended the Tongan medical staff pitchside, saying that it was not his job to question their judgement.
"We have two very experienced doctors there, they have done the usual [tests]. He has passed all that and passed it well," Woolf said.
"My job is not to question doctors.
"They were both comfortable with that and comfortable with him coming back on to the field."
Samoan player Junior Paulo said players' health being put first was the most important thing.
"We as footy players will probably never say no to turning up for your country and getting out there and playing," Paulo said.
"There are protocols around that and should be followed — and they probably were followed.
"In terms of putting your health before your job, that's probably the main outcome that we really want to take out of it.
"This is not to put pressure on anyone who is in that role to make a call, but I think that's what probably their role is to do to look after the health and safety of the player first.
"There are protocols in place for why you probably shouldn't be allowed to return to the field, and that's for the health concerns."
The NRL has launched an investigation into the circumstances of Katoa being allowed to play on, while the Rugby League Players Association said it would run its own enquiries into the incident.
