AFL SET TO STICK WITH CONCUSSION PROTOCOLS

THE AFL is expected to retain its minimum 12-day concussion protocol this season as it awaits the latest official consensus statement from last October’s world concussion conference.

The current rule means any player who suffers a concussion is ruled out at least for the next round and can only return at the earliest on the 12th day after that head knock.

The AFL has reinforced the importance of the graduated 11-step process ahead of a player returning and that no player can advance to the next stage without medical approval.

But players who have had their careers ended because of concussion including West Coast’s Brad Sheppard have pushed for a prolonged absence of as many as 30 days.

The AFL’S disgraced former concussion doctor Paul Mccrory has also advocated a forced absence of two to three weeks and eventually cut ties with the AFL over arguments about return to play.

As the AFL works towards a multimillion-dollar concussion fund to aid players whose lives have been ruined by head knocks, Adelaide’s Paul Seedsman and Brisbane’s Marcus Adams have already been ruled inactive this year.

The league sent several of its medical experts to October’s sixth International Consensus Conference on Concussion in Sport. That conference no longer includes former AFL concussion expert Paul Mccrory as an expert after multiple plagiarism allegations and an independent AFL report into his conduct.

The group is expected to release a consensus statement that will guide sporting bodies in their management of concussion, with the most recent statement released in 2016.

That document will guide the AFL but it is understood the league is all but certain to retain the current minimum 12-day guidelines. It believes clubs have been responsible in keeping players out of action for longer than that period if they have continued to display concussion symptoms.

It is also aware players might attempt to minimise or hide concussion symptoms if revealing them meant missing the next two rounds.

The consensus statement from last October’s conference is expected in coming weeks but already the New York Times has reported it was conflicted over whether repeated head knocks cause degenerative brain disease CTE.

One of the conference’s head neuropsychologists, who had received $1.5m in funding from the NFL, said it was “extraordinarily naive” to think only head knocks caused CTE.

The NFL has acknowledged the link between head knocks and CTE, as has America’s biggest funder of brain research The National Institutes of Health.

World rugby has a 12-day concussion protocol while NRL players are not allowed to return from a concussion before 11 days.