Hull KR’s Mose Masoe has been told he will have to leave hospital in the next 72 hours and continue his rehabilitation from a career-ending spinal injury at home.
The rugby league team’s co-captain will be discharged from Wakefield’s Pinderfields hospital this week, with beds being freed up for coronavirus patients. Masoe has only recently started walking with the assistance of parallel bars, and says he is “not ready” to go home.
The 30-year-old prop has urged people to “stop being selfish” and stay at home, after becoming a victim of the ripple effect of the pandemic.
“They’ve got to clear out a lot of wards to get in the people who have coronavirus so a lot of us have to go home,” Masoe told the Hull KR website. “I’m not really ready to go home at all.
“It will be nice to get home so I can spend some time with my kids but there’s a lot of things I can’t do myself, like going to the toilet and things like that. I don’t want to put a burden on my missus. We just got the news this morning so we’re still in the dark.”
Masoe says he has been told hospital staff are concerned about patients catching the virus. “When you get a spinal injury we’re at a high risk. A lot of people forget our immune systems drop,” he said.
“We need people to stay home so we can get back into the hospital to do rehab. People need to stop being selfish because we’ve felt the effects already. It’s the first time in the world you can save lives by just staying home watching TV or playing PlayStation.
“That’s my frustration with people who aren’t listening. My wife is pregnant so they’ve all been staying home and she’s only going out to get food. They’ve been doing the right thing and staying away. I haven’t seen them for two weeks.
The former Samoa international suffered the injury in Rovers’ pre-season game against Wakefield in January and was transferred to Pinderfields’ spinal unit after four days in the intensive care unit at Leeds General Infirmary.
Masoe is unable to take any equipment home with him due to limited resources at the hospital, but Hull KR and the RFL Benevolent Fund are hoping to help him out.
“I called my missus this morning and she’s tried to get a stair-lift and the benevolent fund have pretty much said they’ll sort that for me,” he said. “I’m very lucky and grateful to have the support and that network but I feel real sorry for the other patients that don’t have that. It’ll be tough for them.
“I’m gutted to be going home because I wanted to keep my progression going. The next step was to go from parallel bars to a walking frame to crutches and then you can pretty much walk by yourself.”
