Australian rugby player dies after suffering head injury during game

Nick Tooth, a 25-year-old Australian rugby player, has died after suffering a head injury during a game.

Nick Tooth, a 25-year-old Australian rugby player, has died after suffering a head injury during a game, his team, the Quirindi Lions, announced on Facebook. 

According to the Daily Telegraph, Tooth was injured Saturday and airlifted to a hospital, where he was placed on life support and underwent emergency surgery. He died Sunday at 4 p.m. local time. 

The Quirindi Rugby club would like to send their deepest condolences to the Tooth family on the loss of Nick. The loss...

Posted by Quirindi Lions Rugby Union on Sunday, April 19, 2015

"It really was just a tragic accident, Nick went in to tackle an opponent and his head clashed with [the opponent's] shoulder and he went down," the team's president, Charles Murray, told ABC.

Tooth had been working in the agricultural grain industry in Sydney and returned to Quirindi, his hometown, for the game, Murray said. Tooth had been playing for the small-town club since he was a child, Murray said. 

Tooth is at least the second Australian athlete in the last five months to die from a head injury sustained in competition. In November, Australian cricket player Phillip Hughes died after he was struck in the head by a ball. 

- Dan Gartland