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.
