Rugby union should ban "contested scrums" due to the risk of players suffering serious spinal injuries, a senior surgeon said today.

James Bourke said he had seen six serious spinal cord injuries caused by contested scrums, when each teams' forwards try to push the opponents off the ball, over the 30 years he had been a medical officer at Nottingham rugby club. Two of the players were now wheelchair-dependent.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, Mr Bourke, a consultant general surgeon at Queen's medical centre in Nottingham, said the lifelong impact of such injuries was so severe it was no longer acceptable to allow contested scrums in the game. They are currently not allowed in under-19 games.

"The incidents involving the two young players who are now wheelchair-dependent occurred recently in my experience in rugby union and have caused me to change my opinion on contested scrums. The consequences of injury are so great that the continuing risk of injury cannot be accepted."

Mr Bourke said rugby union should follow the example of rugby league in Australia and ban contested scrums.

He noted that there had been no acute spinal cord injuries in Australian rugby league since the scrums were banned in 1996. In contrast, a recent study found that, between 1997 and 2002, 39% of Australian rugby union players with acute spinal cord injuries became permanently dependent on a wheelchair.

Mr Bourke's study also warned that the amount of insurance cover for injured players was grossly inadequate, given the cost of caring for a young quadriplegic man over his lifetime. He added that since the game became professional in 1995 it might be subject to the Health and Safety at Work Act, which requires that working practices are safe and do not put employees at risk.

However, Mr Bourke said he did not want a ban on uncontested scrums, in which the players are not allowed to push their opponents away from the spot where the scrum occurs, because they were not so dangerous.