Mexican rugby player Diego Aguilar injured by falling crossbar at sevens tournament

Brutal injury for Mexico's Diego Aguilar at Rugby Americas North Sevens 2024. Photo / X

A Mexican rugby player has suffered a brutal but equally bizarre injury during a game at the 2024 Rugby Americas North Sevens Tournament in Trinidad, resulting in a nasty cut on his head that required many stitches.

Diego Aguilar raced away to score a try with the score level at nil-all against Bermuda. As he slowed before putting down the ball, an opposition player caught up with him and pushed Aguilar into the padded right-hand post.

While he managed to twist over and score, the contact dislodged the crossbar. Moments after Aguilar got up the crossbar fell and struck him on the head.

Play was stopped for about 10 minutes while Aguilar received medical attention and the match was able to get back under way.

Footage of the accident was posted on X before a gruesome image of a stitched-up wound on the top of Aguilar’s head.

Mexico later went on to win the match 14-0.

Elsewhere, at the season-opening Dubai World Series Sevens, the Olympic champion Black Ferns Sevens were pipped by Australia 28-24 in the final.

New Zealand twice rallied back from deficits of 14-0 and 21-12 to take the lead with four minutes to play, but gave an intercept to Australia’s Maddison Levi who darted 80 metres to score the match-winning try.

The All Blacks Sevens men were knocked out by Spain 19-14 in the semifinals – who went on to fall to Fiji in the decider.

New Zealand were handed their second loss of the weekend by Spain after going down to them in pool play. The All Blacks Sevens snuck into the quarter-finals as the best third-placed team and booked a spot in the semifinals with a thrilling win over South Africa, courtesy of a match-winner from Sofai Maka as time expired.

New Zealand eventually finished fourth after losing the bronze final to Argentina.

The next event is in Cape Town this weekend.