His 12-match ban for inappropriate language aimed at Leigh Leopards’ Josh Charnley puts his future at Warrington Wolves into serious doubt, but Josh McGuire is not the first sports star to face a lengthy spell on the sidelines due to disciplinary reasons.
The Australian forward will not return until at least September 2 as he follows his earlier seven-game ban for a similar offence with a three-month suspension.
Here are other instances of sporting governing bodies throwing the book at players for in-play indiscretions…
Josh McGuire
McGuire’s latest disciplinary problem leaves Warrington looking for extra resources, but it is quite astounding that the 33-year-old has allowed himself to be caught up in such a situation once more just six games after returning from his previous ban.
Few Betfred Super League signings can have gone so dramatically off-course so quickly, and there is even speculation that the Wolves will look into the possibility of ending McGuire’s contract.
Stephen Lee
The lifetime bans handed out to Liang Wenbo and Li Hang this week were among 10 suspensions for Chinese players caught up in a massive match-fixing case. But they were far from the first snooker stars to get involved in such issues.
Indeed, Stephen Lee remains suspended until October 12, 2024 – his 50th birthday – having been handed a 12-year ban for influencing the outcome of seven matches during 2008 and 2009, having raised suspicion among fans and fellow professionals for the way he fell to a 4-2 defeat to John Higgins in October 2012 shortly after being cleared over suspicious betting patterns in a 2009 UK Championship match.
Eric Cantona
You know the one. Cantona kicks out at Crystal Palace’s Richard Shaw, the referee’s assistant flags, Gareth Southgate starts pointing aggressively in the face of the French star in that ‘I want to hit you but I’m just too nice’ kind of way. Referee Alan Wilkie shows the red and the Manchester United man decides to seek immediate retribution on a fan spouting all sorts of disagreeable stuff as he makes his way off.
The ’kung-fu kick’ of 1995 will forever be a watershed moment in Premier League history.
Vontaze Burfict
Linebacker Vontaze Burfict hasn’t played since his 12-game ban for repeated breaches of player safety rules elapsed at the end of the 2019 season, with none of the NFL’s 32 teams having shown an interest in offering him the chance for a renaissance.
Burfict was suspended for three weeks after a 2015 incident playing for the Cincinnati Bengals against the Pittsburgh Steelers in which he launched into a head-on-head collision with the opposition’s Antonio Brown. It was further helmet-to-helmet contacts that resulted in the league handing him a record 12-game lay-off four years later, while Brown has encountered a long string of off-field problems since being attacked by Burfict back in ‘15.
Mike Tyson
One of the most notorious moments in sporting history, it is still an incredible watch 26 years on from the night that Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield in a WBA world heavyweight title fight.
This was a rematch after Holyfield had deposed Tyson the previous November, but with 40 seconds left in the third round the New Yorker amazingly rolled his head over Holyfield’s shoulder then bit his opponent’s right ear, ripping a piece off cartilage off and spitting it to the canvas. Although the match was initially restarted with a two-point penalty against Tyson, a second bite before the end of the same round resulted in referee Mills Lane stopping the fight.
Tyson had his $30m fight purse withheld and was banned from boxing until a commission decision was made for him to return 15 months later.
Paul ‘Semtex’ Daley
After a controversial defeat to Josh Koscheck at UFC 113 in 2010, Paul ‘Semtex’ Daley decided to take matters into his own hands. Approaching his opponent from behind, Daley sucker-punched Koscheck with a left hook before being dragged away by the referee.
UFC president Dana White immediately announced that Daley would never fight in the organisation again and 13 years on has proved true to his word. While Daley has found work in other MMA arenas, including currently in Bellator, he has never appeared in UFC since that infamous night.
The 17 LIV golfers
This one worked out well!
Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and Dustin Johnson were among 17 players banned by the PGA Tour from ever playing in their competitions after taking the Saudi riyal to join the LIV Tour in 2022. It was a defection which rocked the sport – all sport – and threatened to forever drive a wedge between those who sold out and those who didn’t.
Except this week it was announced that the PGA Tour and LIV Golf had agreed to a merger as a way of ending ongoing legal disputes. While those who had stayed strong and said no to the mega money were left wondering why they’d bothered, the players who had jumped ship and signed up for LIV found that their bans from the traditional tour were now obsolete.
