Wales hooker Burns forced to retire with neck injury

Wales hooker Lloyd Burns has been forced to retire from rugby with a neck injury that has left him with a damaged aorta and possibly needing heart surgery, his club Newport-Gwent Dragons announced on Wednesday. Burns, who went from playing Welsh Premiership club rugby to representing Wales at last year's World Cup all in the space of 18 months, has been out of action since the beginning of January. The seven-times capped 27-year-old made his Wales debut against the Barbarians in Cardiff last June, going on as a second-half replacement for Huw Bennett. Dragons director of rugby Robert Beale paid tribute to Burns and said his enforced retirement had come as "a massive shock". "Everything Lloyd has achieved in life he has earned through hard work and dedication," Beale said. "His enforced retirement from the game has come as a massive shock to Lloyd and his family and will resonate throughout the rugby world. I am personally relieved that this serious condition has been identified off the field of play. "I would therefore like to thank our medical team at the Dragons, staff at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport and University of Wales, Cardiff for all their efforts in ensuring Lloyd has, and will continue to receive, the highest standards of care." Burns first featured for the Dragons during the 2008/9 season, having played for Pontypool and Cross Keys, but injury meant he could play no part in this season's Six Nations when Wales won the title and clinched a Grand Slam. Burns went to the World Cup as one of three hookers in Wales coach Warren Gatland's squad, featuring alongside Bennett and Ken Owens.