A father of three has died after a severe brain injury during a rugby game in east Auckland over the weekend.<\/p>\n
Cory Heather, who is in his 30s, was airlifted to Auckland City Hospital in a critical condition after being injured in the game in Beachlands on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
His family said in an online fundraising page that he died on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n
They described him as a “much-loved partner” and a “hands on father” to his three children, all aged 5 and under.<\/p>\n
Heather was “a cherished friend to many”, the page said.<\/p>\n
“A bright spark who lead an exceptional life and will be so dearly missed. We love you forever.”<\/p>\n
In a statement on social media, Beachlands Maraetai club president James Gemmell said that Heather was one of the club’s senior players.<\/p>\n
“Cory was a much-loved member of the Senior Under-85kg team, the club and wider community,” Gemmell said.<\/p>\n
“The club is heartbroken by Cory’s passing. His family, friends and teammates all have our love and support.<\/p>\n
“We understand the accident will have been traumatic for many involved, including the opposition, match officials and spectators.”<\/p>\n
Gemmell said that he wanted to thank the members of the community and emergency service members who came to Heather’s aid.<\/p>\n
New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson said the organisation was sending its “deepest condolences and love” to the family.<\/p>\n
“Our thoughts are also with the Beachlands Maraetai Rugby Club and the local region who will be feeling the immense loss of a much loved member of their community. Please know that all of New Zealand rugby is with you.”<\/p>\n
New Zealand Rugby was providing support, alongside Counties Manukau Rugby Union and the New Zealand Rugby Foundation, he said.<\/p>\n
VIA RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A father of three has died after a severe brain injury during a rugby game in east Auckland over the weekend. Cory Heather, who is in his 30s, was airlifted to Auckland City Hospital in a critical condition after being injured in the game in Beachlands on Saturday afternoon. His family said in an online […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174,5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news","category-politics","category-sports"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9664"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9666,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9664\/revisions\/9666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}