South Sydney Rabbitohs CEO John Lee speaks to the media after Aaron Gray and Dylan Walker were released from hospital after their overdose on prescription medication earlier in the week.
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Lee said Souths would review their procedures around the treatment of injured players and the use of painkillers to keep them on the field.
The pair were rushed to hospital on Tuesday morning and placed into heavily sedated states after taking more than the prescribed amount of painkillers – which they both had as a result of recent post-season surgery.
“I’d like to say sorry to our friends and family, it was a mistake we made and a lesson we have learned from”, Walker said in a short statement outside the hospital.
“We have learned our lessons, hopefully people can learn from our mistake – not just in rugby league, but everywhere”, Gray said.
“I now sit on the Australian Sports Commission and it’s fair to say that prescription medications are not a Rugby League problem only”, he said.
A similarly contrite Walker admitted he and his teammate had erred.
‘It’s a mistake we have made and it’s a lesson we have learnt and we hope everyone can take a lesson out of this’.
Despite the players being awake and communicating for three days, Lee said the club had yet to ascertain from them all the details of the incident.
“For us, we own that and know that that is a problem not only in our club but probably in some other clubs”.
“We will take the responsibility to put in better protocols, to make the right changes and to have the right levels of education so as we can prevent this incident from occurring again”.
Walker – 20 – and Gray – 21 – left St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney this afternoon, having fully recovered from the overdose that, were it not for the presence of others on the scene, could have turned tragic in a big hurry. Pic: Instagram.
Lee said the code needed to face some hard truths and called on the NRL to increase testing for the abuse of prescription drugs and introduce hair follicle testing.
“I can confirm that our chairman (Nick Pappas) and our coach Michael Maguire, we would like to be at the forefront of a new trial through the use of hair follicles”.
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“What is in place at the moment is good, and the NRL has taken some excellent steps to get more information, especially around prescribed medicines, but it’s not the best in the world and that’s what we’ve got to move to”, Lee said.
