Head injuries in football have been very well documented for the last few years and it’s certainly something that needs to be improved with how players are treated on and off the pitch.
This year’s world cup has only just kicked off and although it has only been three days, there has already been a major talking point regarding a potential concussion.
Iran’s first choice goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand collided with teammate Majid Hosseini in their defeat against England and received a brutal knock to the head resulting in a bloodied nose.
Majid also received a knock but was a lot better off than Beiranvand who was on the floor receiving treatment for around 12 minutes.
Although there was a long delay, the Iran keeper chose to play on which had viewers perplexed.
However, only three minutes passed before Iran’s number one collapsed to the floor and couldn’t continue which was only to be expected.
A charity called Headway UK was set up in order to help people who have had their lives affected by head injuries, and they have been calling for more rules to be put in place to prevent such injuries from happening to football players around the world.
Headway is calling for these rules to help give the medical teams more time to assess potential head injuries and concussions.
Luke Griggs of Headway UK gave his thoughts about the topic.
“We have repeatedly warned football of the risk it is taking, not only with the elite- level players who are being allowed to return to the field of play potentially concussed, but also grass roots and youth players who follow the examples they see on their screens.
“Team medics are placed in the impossible position of having to make immediate judgements about an evolving condition- with tens of thousands of fans watching them work. It is not an appropriate or effective way of making a clinical judgement.”
Iran’s medical team entered the pitch after the players called them over following concern over Beiranvand’s injury.
They were then criticized for allowing the player to carry on after making a poor judgement on his welfare.
“The phrase ‘if in doubt, sit it out’ is supposedly at the heart of concussion protocols in all sports and yet too often we see teams fail to take that approach.
“Instead, the approach seems to be ‘let’s see how they get on for the next 15 minutes’ during which time they risk exacerbating the effect of the initial injury.”
Griggs who saw the England game, provided his bitter feelings on the matter.
“It is an utter disgrace that Beiranvand was allowed to stay on the pitch.
“It was irrelevant that he came off a minute later, he shouldn’t have stayed on for a second let alone a minute.
“He was clearly distressed and unfit to continue, this seems to be another case of the decision being made by the player and not the medical staff, this was the first test of the FIFA World Cup concussion protocol, and it was an abject failure.”
In 2014, UEFA introduced the rule to allow referees to stop matches for up to three minutes to assess head injuries.
The club doctor would then take the player off the pitch and conduct an assessment to determine whether the player is fit enough to come back on.
However, this seems to be forgotten about a lot of the time when we see players sustain head injuries and is probably the main reason fans are concerned.
The rules are there but they aren’t being followed, so when will they be?
