Injured Rugby Player Scolded by Doctor for TikTok Dance Videos

In Tuesday’s Hot Clicks: A rugby player’s interesting idea of injury rehab, a monster performance from Damian Lillard and more.

Cool it with the dancing, dude

Jed Leicester/BPI/Shutterstock

Ardie Savea is one of the best players on one of the best rugby teams in the world. The 26-year-old New Zealand All Blacks flanker was a nominee for World Rugby’s Player of the Year award, thanks to his stellar play with the national team. But Savea is currently recovering from knee surgery, and his doctor is concerned is social media habits may be impeding his recovery. 

Savea had surgery in early December to repair a knee injury suffered in the Rugby World Cup semifinal against England in late October. He said at the time that the recovery would take five to six months, potentially causing him to miss the entire season with his club team in Super Rugby, the Hurricanes.

In his down time, Savea has been posting a bunch on TikTok, a Chinese-made video sharing app that’s exploding in popularity. He’s racked up more than 80,000 followers so far. 

But at least one person isn’t enjoying Savea’s videos. The Hurricanes' team doctor. 

“I’ve been doing TikToks lately and they require dance moves. I went in to work the other day and the doc told me off,” he told reporters at Super Rugby event in New Zealand.

“Just doing stuff like that and walking down the stairs, sometimes you feel really confident, but then it catches a little bit, so I just need to be careful.”

Savea is supposed to see his surgeon on Wednesday, who will give him a better idea of when he could return to the field. Hopefully he also gets clearance to keep trying to go viral online. 

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