I think that the injury to Ryan Jones makes the British & Irish Lions management team look a little foolish.
The Wales back-rower had been called up to replace Stephen Ferris, but will now not take part in the tour due to a head injury that he picked up recently.
If I were him [Jones], I would have done exactly what he did. I saw that he got two serious knocks in either the match against Canada or the USA and was unable to continue.
As we know concussion is a serious situation. It means that your cerebal cortex has moved inside your skull and there is a bleed.
What has happened over the years is that team management have said, if the player is of real value, is that he is a little bit dizzy or he took a bit of a hit, but he's okay. And that is exactly what I think has happened here with Jones.
I would have done what he did, which is get on the plane and see if you can bluff your way out of it. There are a number of elements to consider though, like if he had another serious injury there the insurances costs would be sky high and the medical people would have looked very stupid indeed.
He must have had a scan and there must be some residual damage there. And they probably said 'Look, we just can't risk this guy'.
I just sensed from the very start that for some reason Warren Gatland didn't want his captain over there and I thought that the obvious choice for a replacement for Ferris, considering Jones had problems in Wales' tour to America, was Denis Leamy.
Leamy should have been brought on the plane. He is playing very well at the moment and was playing very well for Munster prior to that, so I thought that he was the obvious candidate when you consider what happened to Jones.
Neil was speaking as part of a live discussion on The British & Irish Lions on The Hub on Setanta Ireland.