Young GAA players told they must report concussion worries
ADOLESCENT GAA players are less likely to report a concussion if it interferes with an important match, according to a new study.
The DCU research found that nearly six out of 10 teenage players had sustained at least one suspected sports-related concussion — with 8pc reporting between three and five suspected concussions.
The new study gives a revealing glimpse into the reasons why young players fail to report a concussion. Among young players from under-18, under-16 and under-14 hurling, camogie and Gaelic football teams, only 43pc would report a concussion during a trial for the county under-age team.
Three out of 10 wouldn’t make the report and a quarter were unsure if they would raise the alarm during a trial.
When it came to a championship game, 53pc would report the suspected head injury while 17pc wouldn’t make a report and 30pc were unsure. There were similar figures when it came to the prospect of a ‘big’ match in the near future.
The lead author of the paper, Dr Siobhan O’Connor, assistant professor in the School of Health and Human Performance at DCU, said: “By not reporting their concussion, players are not adequately assessed and they may not stop playing or complete a return to play protocol.
“This can lead to a delayed recovery, increase their future risk of a concussion or other injuries and could have serious catastrophic consequences like second impact syndrome if they sustain another blow.”
The study was carried out on 113 adolescent male and female Gaelic games players and 151 parents who completed an anonymous questionnaire.
The paper, published in Sports Health: A Multidisciplinary Journal, highlighted that the GAA had taken measures to improve awareness of concussion with educational initiatives available to all players, members, referees, and coaches.
Dr O’Connor said the young players’ knowledge of concussion was quite good. She said it was concerning that just under three in five adolescent Gaelic games players suspected they had suffered a concussion previously, but not all were medically diagnosed. The biggest reason for not reporting a suspected concussion was letting teammates down — cited by half of the young players.
Four out of 10 said they would fail to raise the alarm because of letting friends, family or the community down, while 36pc said they felt pressure to continue to play.
Dr O’Connor said the message needed to be put across that a player’s safety was paramount.
“No game is more important than the health of the players. We need to explicitly let our under-age players know that it is important to tell an adult if they think they are concussed, even if they are not sure.
“We need to make it clear that they are not letting the team down.”
She added that Certified Athletic Therapists can manage concussion and give a guided rehabilitation and get players back playing as soon as possible in a safe manner.
The study pointed out that as medical professionals were rarely at training and only attended a minority of games, it was important to create a culture of reporting the suspected injury among non-medical personnel.
Dr O’Connor noted that the wider GAA community including coaches, parents and volunteers needed to be educated, along with the young players themselves.
“We also need to think of implementing new approaches, such as Popular Opinion Leader approaches, to encourage adolescents to report to a responsible adult if they suspect that they or a teammate is concussed.”