With five minutes to play in Warringah Rats’ round 16 fixture against Sydney University at Pittwater Rugby Park on Saturday, Rats hooker Wes Thomas lay prone on his back, motionless – it was like he couldn’t move.
Scratch like – Thomas could not move.
The Rats had been pressuring the Uni line when Thomas attempted a very “hooker” play – he took the ball from the bottom of a ruck and sought to burrow through for a try from less than a metre out. When the ball is in that part of the field, it’s rugby 101; the only play.
Yet Thomas’s short drive was repelled by an equally immovable object coming the other way, and there followed heavy contact to neck and shoulder. From that point of impact, as the maelstrom of the ruck raged about him, Thomas lay on his back, unmoving.
Rats coach Josh Holmes was watching from the grandstand. He told The Manly Observer that he hopes to never see something like it again: a player on his back, with uncertainty about whether he will get back up.
“Everything sort of stops in those moments; nothing else matters but the guy on the ground,” Holmes says. “We were worried about him. It was pretty upsetting.”
Thankfully, the Rats had a good man on hand: Dr Tom Harwood is an emergency specialist at Royal North Shore Hospital. He’s also the Rats club doctor.
“He took charge,” Holmes says. “And he looked after Wes all the way to hospital.”
At Royal North Shore, Thomas was diagnosed with central cord syndrome (CCS), a traumatic injury to the spinal cord that runs through the bones of the neck. It causes more weakness in arms than legs. There’s numbness, pain; fine motor skills are affected.
Surgery on Sunday alleviated swelling and took pressure off the spinal cord. And there was good news: no break, no dislocation. Thomas has feeling in his legs and is steadily regaining more feeling in his arms, according to Rats General Manager, Jake Letts,
“There’s still a lot of swelling. It’s still early days for him – we don’t know yet exactly what will happen,” Letts says.
“We do know he’s on the improve and he’s in very good hands.
“But there’s still a long way to go.”
In the way of rugby, and of sport, and of communities like these on our Northern Beaches, Thomas and his family have been overwhelmed by goodwill.
The Wes Thomas Recovery Support Fund has been setup help pay for medical bills, time off work, rehabilitation, physical therapy, adaptive equipment and more. Such is the depth of feeling for Thomas, at time of publication, the fund had raised $108,822.
Holmes has spoken with the 28-year-old near-daily and says Thomas is upset about being in hospital. “He’d rather be out playing footy with his mates, helping the club,” Holmes says. “It’s so frustrating for him – he was having another great season. It’s such bad luck.”
One can safely assume, too, that lying on his back in a hospital bed would not be the ideal state of being for so active a man as Wes Thomas.
Each day he works out in the morning before heading off to his actual work as a scaffolder. Evenings he’ll train for rugby, Saturday is game day with the Rats. Then on Sunday he plays rugby league for Cromer Kingfishers.
Thomas is a Rats stalwart who came off the bench in the Rats 2019 grand final. In 2025, when Warringah shocked Sydney rugby with a 37-24 triumph over reigning premiers Eastern Suburbs, Thomas was a vital cog in the green-and-white machine.
Holmes is not the only one who believes Thomas should be on the radar of provincial rugby selectors, particularly given that in 2025 Thomas was awarded the prestigious Ken Catchpole Medal as the best player in Shute Shield competition.
Stan Sports rugby commentator and former University and Easts player Tom Coolican needs no convincing. On the broadcast he described Thomas as “getting out of bed at 4am in the morning, moving tin [lifting weights] and then moving metal during the day, on the job.”
“He’s an aspirational player, knocking on the door of Super Rugby.
“I played against Wes on a number of occasions, he’s a wonderful stalwart.
“He’s an asset to the competition, the archetypal definition of the amateur-professional rugby player,” Coolican said.
Click here to donate to the Wes Thomas Recovery Support Fund
