Former St George Illawarra and Parramatta hooker Mark Riddell has slammed the officials in the Canterbury versus Melbourne clash on Sunday at Belmore after Storm fullback Jahrome Hughes failed to come from the field after a sickening head clash with Dale Finucane.

Hughes suffered a nasty wound from the incident but was not forced from the field by the referees for a HIA test.

“With such a severe head clash between two players, they both needed to immediately be removed from the field,” Riddell said on Macquarie Sports Radio on Monday morning.

“I’ve got no idea why they didn’t – Hughes has only just come back from a HIA and then he has a sickening collision with Dale Finucane.

“With some of the things we see players go off with a HIA, they needed to get (Hughes) off but they didn’t.”