Officials attend summit held to address head injury in sports

CHICAGO: Alecko Eskandrian starred at the University of Virginia before playing for five teams during seven seasons in Major League Soccer (MLS). The All-star forward had five documented concussions during his MLS career, leading to his retirement in 2010.

When it comes to head injuries and soccer, Eskandrian said, the sport has come a long way.

“When I was younger, growing up, that wasn’t even a thing to, hey, report your concussion,” he said. “It was more of like, if you felt OK, you carried through, you carried through, and there were never discussions about short-term, longterms effects, things like that.”

The 40-year-old Eskandrian, who works for MLS in player relations and player development, shared his perspective while speaking on a panel Wednesday on the first day of a head injury summit at a downtown Chicago hotel.

The conference of scientists, medical professionals and athletic trainers and officials was organized by US Soccer, Major League Soccer, the National Women’s Soccer League and the United Soccer League. It also included speakers from the Premier League, English Football Association and World Rugby.

Looking to build on the findings of the sixth International Conference on Concussion in Sport held in Amsterdam in October 2022, the summit featured presentations and discussion on the latest developments in concussion prevention, diagnosis and care.

“The amount of literature that’s been published in the last two, three, four years is equal to the amount of literature that’s been published in the last 20,” said Margot Putukian, the chief medical officer for MLS. “So this is a really important topic.”

The summit opened a day ater the Concussion Legacy Foundation announced that four more former professional soccer players had been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy - a degenerative brain disease that has been linked to concussions in athletes, combat veterans and others who sustained repeated head trauma.