SOFTLY, SOFTLY: CONCUSSION AND CARDIAC CONCERNS IN FOOTBALL

The English Football Association have announced a new rule that will prevent players who lose consciousness during a game to re-enter play. This is just the latest in a series of moves that is changing football and many other contact sports at all levels.

D. Ray Morton, 6th August 2014.

Uruguay's Álvaro Pereira was one of several knocked out cold playing in the World Cup just gone

The FA will introduce a couple of new things in the upcoming season: World Cup-style shaving foam to ensure defensive walls stay in their place and a very non-World Cup-style “concussion rule” that will involve preventing players who lose consciousness during a match to re-enter play. Indeed, this past World Cup featured at least three head injuries of note that may well have twisted the FA's arm in terms of taking action. Uruguay's Álvaro Pereira, Argentina's Javier Mascherano and Germany's Christoph Kramer were each knocked unconscious at different stages of the competition but were allowed to continue play despite serious risk of injury. The FA's rule will take the power out of the manager's hands and give it to the club's medical staff.

 

Last season, former Tottenham manager André Villas-Boas was heavily criticised for allowing his goalkeeper Hugo Lloris to continue playing despite being knocked out for several minutes during a match against Everton. Villas-Boas did not want to waste a substitution and was satisfied that Lloris continue after he had demanded to do so himself. The criticism of Villas-Boas, who had never won over the English media anyway, was a little over-the-top considering managers wish to win at all costs and there was no rule that insisted he remove Lloris. Now the concerned onlookers have got their wish. Players who pass out will not be allowed to play on and teams will be forced to use a substitute, or in the case that all three are used, the team will have to play on with a man less. One wonders how a truly cynical opposition side could take advantage of such a situation.

Tottenham's Hugo Lloris regaining consciousness after being KO'd against Everton last season

This new rule does not seem ideal. Logic would dictate that, in the event of such an incident, a club might be offered an additional substitution, one which would not impact on their basic right to make three regular changes in a game. It would not be an ideal solution but it would be fairer to a side that have a player injured, by the opposition more than likely, and are not left in the lurch as a result. Concussions are dangerous and football's governing bodies need to be vigilant but this new rule seems like more of a problem than a fix. It should also be noted that although once-off concussions can be serious, children or athletes who have had repeat concussions are at a much higher risk and perhaps such carefulness need not go too far. Football is not exactly a sport where concussion is endemic like in rugby or in fight sports.

Another big thing in football right now is cardiac monitoring. A few incidents in recent seasons have brought this into the spotlight. Fabrice Muamba's brush with death in March 2012, Piermario Morosini's passing in April of that year and Daniel Jarque's death in 2009 all raised flags. Cardiac monitoring is so prevalent in football currently that Queens Park Rangers' Loïc Remy just failed a medical which prevented a move to Liverpool. Is this an overstated risk, however? Professional footballers are playing more than ever and an underlying condition is often either undetected or there is no underlying condition in the first place. Death occurs in endurance sports when athletes, who may have perfectly good cardiovascular health prior to their escapades, simply push themselves too far. Companies are being set up with the express goal to push heart rate monitoring into every facet of sport akin to post-Second World War spiv turning up at your doorstep, peddling their stolen wares. An athlete like Frank Lampard, who has what doctors would describe as a larger-than-normal heart, might not even make it into an academy were he a youth player today.

Although the FA's intention with the unconsciousness rule is in the right place, it proposes too many questions and could become very sloppy indeed. It is important to look after players but they must not be overly-mollycoddled and those who practice over-vigilance must remember that football is not ballet. We do not want twenty-two Petr Čech caps on the pitch.