PRIME MINISTER Gordon Brown has given his backing to the Rugby Football Union s Injured Players' Foundation.

PRIME MINISTER Gordon Brown has given his backing to the Rugby Football Union's Injured Players' Foundation.Mr Brown hosted members of the England rugby squad and the Great Britain wheelchair rugby team at No 10 Downing Street this week to launch the new charity.Although catastrophic injuries in rugby union remain extremely rare, the RFU takes very seriously its responsibility to former players who need ongoing support.Gordon Brown said: "I am incredibly grateful to the RFU for their work supporting players and their families when injury strikes and I want to thank everyone involved in the launch of this new foundation. "With a dedicated team at Twickenham working closely with spinal injury units and the NHS, the Injured Players' Foundation is a fantastic initiative and one that I know will make an enormous difference to helping injured players to rebuild both their bodies and their lives."England Team Manager Martin Johnson said: "The Injured Players' Foundation is a superb initiative that will advance the previous good work of SPIRE (Support Paraplegics In Rugby Enterprise) and it has the full support of the England senior elite player squad.