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It’s not a question of if head injuries need addressing – Takeaways from Matchday 7

By on October 6, 2014

It’s not a question of if rules surrounding head injuries need change, but what change.
The plague of head injuries at the highest level of football has now expanded from last summer’s World Cup and the MLS to the English Premier League as controversy has struck over Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois’ knock against Arsenal. Or, rather, crept back into the league. Last season, Hugo Lloris was allowed to play on after suffering a concussion and losing consciousness following a knee to the head in Tottenham Hotspur’s meeting with Everton. The Premier League took a small step of banning players who have lost consciousness to re-enter play and made other small adjustments to their rules surrounding head injuries, but the bigger picture couldn’t be more clear – something more needs to be done about this.

A lawsuit was filed against FIFA, among parties, over the summer demanding changes to their rules regarding head injuries, but the organization has downplayed and sidestepped the issue. And what is frightening is the fact that one quick online search can reveal the potential danger if head injuries. If, for instance, a player has a concussion and is allowed to play on, as is so often the case, the risk of second impact syndrome is life threatening and if not has life-long lasting repercussions. Just in the a World Cup this summer there were multiple cases of players playing on. In the group stages Alvaro Pereira was knocked out for a shirt while before playing on, while Javier Mascherano and Pablo Zabaleta also did after suffering heavy knocks. And perhaps most worrying of all, Christoph Kramer seemed disoriented after suffering a blow to the head in the final, but was only taken off thirteen minutes later. The referee that day revealed just the extent of the blow, saying: “Shortly after the blow, Kramer came to me asking: ‘Ref, is this the final?’” Nicola Rizzoli told the Gazzetta dello Sport on Thursday. “I thought he was joking and made him repeat the question and then he said: ‘I need to know if this is really the final.’ When I said: ‘Yes,’ he concluded: ‘Thanks, it was important to know that.’”

Courtois has been released from the hospital, which he was only taken to after he continued on the pitch for mire than ten minutes after suffering the injury, and that will likely calm the issue. The Premier League and FIFA have taken only small steps, with the latter allowing a three minutes for players who have suffered head blows to be assessed for a concussion, but even that is less than half of the time recommended by leading neurological studies, and hardly goes anywhere to stopping the issue. Courtois was immobile on his back for a few seconds after his knock but just fifty-six seconds later play began with him on the pitch. The debate is still going on whether something needs to be done, but that clearly shouldn’t be the question – it should be about WHAT should be done.

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.