Ireland's Brian O'Driscoll has again hit out at New Zealand captain Tana Umaga and Keven Mealamu for the tackle that ruled him out of most of the Lions summer tour.
O'Driscoll lasted less than a minute of the first Test after the New Zealand pair picked him up and dumped him on the ground, prompting accusations of an illegal spear tackle.
The Leinster centre was forced to leave the field with a dislocated right shoulder and was ruled out for the remainder of the tour, in which the Lions were resoundingly beaten 3-0.
In the first extract from his tour diary, published in The Guardian, O'Driscoll layed the blame for his injury squarely on the shoulders of Umaga and Mealamu.
"They could have broken my neck for all they seemed to care. They dumped me from a great height and I found myself heading for the ground more quickly than seemed natural," O'Driscoll said.
"Was I speared? I think so. Slam-dunked is probably the expression which sums it up best. Not that it makes much difference - even if they just dropped me they were reckless as to whether I broke my neck or not.
"As I was thrown down, the only thing in my mind was to somehow break my fall. I stretched out with my right arm. Something had to give and it was my right shoulder, which had sheared away and, as I now know, dislocated.
"I tried to shout out but I had no voice at all - either I had been winded or the shock had numbed me for a minute. I felt like a drowning man, I wanted to shout for help but nobody could hear me. Play had moved to the far side of the pitch. I was stranded," he added.
"We lost the match 21-3, and the boys were very down, but they were fantastic to me. Players instinctively know when something is wrong or right. And they knew that I had been done in cold blood."
