Hull KR co-captain Mose Masoe is "gutted" to have been told he must return home from hospital prematurely to make room for patients suffering from the coronavirus.

Masoe suffered a career-ending spinal injury in a pre-season friendly in January.

The Samoa international has made great progress with his recovery, but was informed on Monday that he must leave Pinderfields Hospital this week amid the COVID-19 crisis.

Masoe says he is not ready to be discharged and warned people who are not obeying government lockdown rules that they should understand the consequences of their actions.

He told the club's official website: "They've got to clear out a lot of wards to get in the people who have coronavirus so a lot of us have to go home.

"I'm not really ready to go home at all. It will be nice to get home so I can spend some time with my kids but there's a lot of things I can't do myself, like going to the toilet and things like that. I don't want to put a burden on my missus.

"We just got the news this morning so we're still in the dark. When you get a spinal injury we're at a high risk. A lot of people forget our immune systems drop.

"One: they're worried about us catching it while we're in here because the hospital is getting fuller and two: they're trying to clear out the wards for people with coronavirus.

"We need people to stay home so we can get back into the hospital to do rehab. People need to stop being selfish because we've felt the effects already.

"It's the first time in the world you can save lives by just staying home watching TV or playing PlayStation. That’s my frustration with people who aren't listening.

"My wife is pregnant so they've all been staying home and she's only going out to get food. They've been doing the right thing and staying away. I haven't seen them for two weeks.

"We knew we had to do that because it's safer for everyone. We both thought it was the best thing to do.

"I'm gutted to be going home because I wanted to keep my progression going. The next step was to go from parallel bars to a walking frame to crutches and then you can pretty much walk by yourself."