Leading brain injury charity, Headway says new concussion protocols “had failed their very first test” because Hammer Issa Diop was put at risk of serious injury after he was cleared following a two-minute assessment by West Ham’s medical team – only to be then replaced at half-time.
“The decision to allow Diop to return to the field of play after being assessed for concussion in just two minutes, while still on the pitch, shows just how deeply flawed this new protocol is,” said Headway’s chief executive, Peter McCabe. “The new protocol has failed its very first test.”
Headway has repeatedly lobbied for the use of temporary substitutions instead, which it says would allow a player to be properly assessed by doctors for at least 10 minutes – a process used in sports such as rugby union – while another player replaces them.
Had the FA followed the advice of Headway and other leading experts by introducing temporary substitutes, as successfully used in other sports, Diop would not have been at risk of exacerbating the injury to his brain during the seven minutes he was allowed to play on before half-time,” McCabe said. “The FA must act now to alter the rule and introduce temporary concussion substitutes to avoid such unacceptable risk being taken in the future.”
West Ham believes they followed the correct protocols and that Diop was accurately assessed on the pitch by their medical staff.
The Hammers became the first club in England to use a concussion substitute when Ryan Fredericks replaced Issa Diop at half time at Old Trafford.
I don’t read that as a criticism of West Ham, but of the rules.
The charity is suggesting that the way the rules are currently structured, forces clubs to keep a player on the field, rather than taking them off the pitch to assess them properly. However, they suggest that if clubs could make a temporary replacement, then it would allow them to spend a longer time assessing the player. Currently, if you take the player off the field to assess them, you’ll end up playing with 10 men until the assessment is made.
I agree that the rules need changing to allow a temporary substitute while the injury is properly assessed.
Strange that everyone in concentrating in Diop, who was rightly replaced at half time, yet there has been no mention that Martial was allowed to continue after half time with a swelling the size of an egg on his forehead.