Sin Bin

A worrying story in the Halifax Courier concerning a club player who was left lying on a pitch for an hour after breaking his leg because it was not deemed a "critical incident" by 999 staff.

Will Nicholson, 23, broke his leg while playing for Heath against Old Brodleians in Yorkshire. It took an hour for a medical response to arrive and a further half hour before an ambulance appeared. A number of calls were made to the emergency services and each time the response was that it would take up to two-and-a-half hours for an ambulance to arrive because it was not felt to be a critical incident but to call back if the situation worsened.

Nicholson was given over-the-counter painkiller by a physiotherapist but he could not be moved off the pitch because of his injury.

"Will was getting cold and we were keeping him conscious and the delay is not acceptable," Heath chairman Paul Sutcliffe told the newspaper. "They said it was non-critical but the lad was getting critical. He was struggling and his family was getting frantic."

Nicholson underwent surgery over the weekend and is now recovering. .