BOURNEMOUTH boss Will Croker ruled Alex Sutherland out of the trip to Old Redcliffians and then insisted "real attention" should be paid to concussions.

Full-back Sutherland sustained a head injury in the 21-13 win over Cleve six days before Christmas and failed a fitness test at training on Tuesday.

He was not given the green light as he had suffered a recurrent headache five days before the test – an automatic fail under the RFU's Return to Play guidelines.

And Croker stressed that, as always under his watchful eye, the test result would be strictly adhered to.

He told the Daily Echo: "If anything happened to him, I don't think I'd be able to live with myself. I've seen twice the impact that concussions can have.

"I played at Oakmeadians alongside Liam McMahon, who suffered repeated concussions and ended up in an induced coma and never played after that.

"When I was at Basingstoke, we took George Sewell on loan from London Irish who had several concussions and at 19 was told he would never play again.

"Old-school players might say 'bandage it up and get on with it' but I think the research has shown it's one of the biggest factors in retirements from the sport. It's something we have to pay real attention to.

"I think that by the time today's kids eventually become senior players, they will have to wear scrum hats and I don't think that's a bad thing.

"It only reduces the risk of concussion slightly but any reduction of risk is better than youngsters not being able to play again."

Bournemouth captain Joe Rees is out of tomorrow's trip to Bristol (2.15pm) with a medial ligament problem, while Matt Warwick has a broken arm.

Lions: (from) Tarrant, Fraser, Firetto, Treloar, Christopher, Peart, Yates, Hennings, Hardcastle, Chislett, Roberts, Chandler, Hancox, Everett-Bolter, Veneroso, Hughes, Moreton, Snell.