Ryan Hoffman says Melbourne followed the new concussion guidelines by the book in Monday’s win over St George Illawarra after the NRL begun an investigation into whether the star back-rower should have returned to the game.
Hoffman was taken off after suffering a head knock in the 55th minute of the Storm’s highly controversial 28-24 victory at AAMI Park.
The representative forward returned to the fray in the 61st minute.
The Dragons were forced to play the final 90 seconds of the round six fixture down a man after Joel Thompson’s 15 minute concussion window was closed, and they were forced to take Dan Hunt off because they had used their 10th and final interchange.
The Dragons have since called for the concussion guidelines to be reviewed.
Guidelines Hoffman is adamant the Storm stuck to.
“Despite my insistence at the time I was ok, our club dr had me undertake the full SCAT concussion test as per NRL regulations,” Hoffman wrote on Twitter.
“I passed the test and was cleared to go back on the field. Any notion that our Dr acted outside NRL regulations are false.”
Canterbury are the only side so far to fall foul of the new concussion laws.
They were fined $20,000, half of which was suspended, after forward Josh Jackson was not properly attended to after copping a head knock in the round two match with Cronulla.