Canadian rugby player suffers traumatic brain injury in Bali scooter crash

Canadian rugby player Nick Allen was hospitalized in Indonesia with a traumatic brain injury after a scooter crash last week in Bali.

Allen, 26, who played for the national sevens team over the last two seasons and represented Canada at the Commonwealth Games last summer, was seriously hurt in the crash on Nov. 7, according to Rugby Canada.

Emergency surgery was required after Allen suffered severe injuries to his head, shoulder and forearm, the federation said in an Instagram post.

The slow process of Allen "being woken" from a medically induced coma has started, according to Allen's father and the social media post on Saturday.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the crash or how long the recovery process might take. A message left with Rugby Canada was not immediately returned.

Michael Allen told CTV News that his son, who calls Victoria home, is in for a long and hard recovery.

"Nick was on a scooter and he hit a car," Michael said in an interview Tuesday. "He was over there with his friend Jake, just going on a little break. They were headed there to watch some rugby and just stopped off in Bali."

Michael said his son "is a fighter" and that his friends and family are devoted to his recovery.

A GoFundMe page set up by friends and family to pay for Allen's medical bills had raised over $190,000 of its $550,000 goal by Tuesday afternoon.

Allen, a six-foot-four 230-pound back row, originally from West Vancouver, B.C., played at the university level for the UBC Thunderbirds from 2015 to 2020.

With files from The Canadian Press