George North has sustained a barrage of concussions in recent times, and has not played competitively since March after a blow received while scoring a try for Northampton against Wasps.
He had received a damaging blow to the head in last year's November internationals. During the Six Nations, he was knocked unconscious after an unfortunate clash of heads with teammate Richard Hibbard in the opening day defeat to England.
The Northampton-Wasps blow was the worst of them all, an incident which left North prone on the turf by the try-line, and left many worried in the Stand.
The Nathan Hughes red card incident (via @jeffersonlake) https://t.co/nnH06rfDdl
— Tom Vickers (@WheresTommyV) March 27, 2015
His girlfriend, cyclist Becky James, revealed, in an interview with BBC Wales, that in the days after the latest concussion, North's speech was affected.
It's quite stressful to think how he was affected after the concussions and how his speech was affected for the first few days.
It's been hard to see him not playing and going through protocols. Seeing him get so many concussions was awful.
It was more of a worry than my knee because it's your head at the end of the day and you only get one of them, but I could get my knee replaced if I need it one day.
It's just crazy to think about the hits rugby boys have to go through.
Shortly after the Northampton blows, neurologists recommended that North spend some time out of the game and he hasn't played in five months. However, with the World Cup looming, North is now back in the Welsh setup.
