Wallabies can’t help
Decision on return date up to player after another head knock I don’t think it is up to us or anyone else to decide what he wants to do.
All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster insists midfielder Ryan Crotty’s health is their “greatest concern”. Crotty racked up another concussion in a head clash with midfield partner Jack Goodhue in the Bledisloe Cup opener against Australia on Saturday.
The 29-year-old has suffered a series of similar blows over the years, including one which required a rest in May during the Crusaders’ triumphant Super Rugby season.
The latest knock has prompted fans, including Crotty’s sister Shea, to question whether he should return to the game at all.
The onus has gone on the sport in recent years to exhibit more caution around concussion, so players don’t end up physically and mentally damaged in later life.
Foster said yesterday Crotty would now go through “the protocols” to address the issue.
“There is no pressure on him to come back and play in a hurry. The beauty of how we handle it is that we give him the space to recover properly,” Foster said.
“The signs are really positive in the last few days.”
Foster said a decision about returning was entirely up to Crotty.
“At the end of the day, his health is our greatest concern.
“The good thing is the decision is in his hands. And I don’t think it is up to us or anyone else to decide what he wants to do.”
Crotty, who was replaced by Anton Lienert-Brown early in the Sydney test, spoke about his previous head knock in June.
“You rest until there are no symptoms, then you can start to train again and increase the intensity,” Crotty said then.
He was asked whether he rehabilitated along similar lines to other injuries, such as a hamstring strain.
“That’s kind of how the doctors set it out. You’re just as diligent to make sure it’s right before you come All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster
back and play,” Crotty said.
“You know when you’re right and when you’re not. Once you do feel right, you gradually increase your training load to get back to where you were.”
Meanwhile, several medical experts — including Stephen Kara — have warned against Crotty returning to action too soon.
According to Kara, a former Blues team doctor who now runs a concussion clinic based in St Johns, the symptoms are hard to define.
“They can be wide ranging and varied,” he told Radio Sport.
Kara said they can access a lot of normative data but that’s only one part of the diagnosis.
“Seventy per cent of people get better within two weeks, from our data, whereas kids take four weeks, but it can be a straight-forward process if you do the right things early.”
There are, however, some worrying signs, he said.
“One danger to look for are people who take longer to recover each time they get a concussion, as well as those who had less force applied but produce the same symptoms. Those people worry me,” Kara said.
“He [Crotty] will be getting some good advice [from the All Blacks] and there’ll be no rush to get him on the field. It comes down to the doctor, coach and player deciding what his future looks like.” Wallabies defeats at Eden Park have become a bit like leadership coups in Australian politics — they tend to happen every year or so — and so while coach Michael Cheika will this week probably rubbish the idea of a “hoodoo”, for the players themselves, it appears to be alive and well.
Hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau, all business these days with a short-backand-sides haircut, brought up the Eden Park factor himself at his team’s Waiheke Island base yesterday.
Polota-Nau will want a vastly improved scrum and lineout performance from his pack on Saturday in a test which will determine whether the competition for the Bledisloe Cup stays relevant for the third of the series in Tokyo in October, but just as great a motivation will be winning only his second match at the All Blacks’ fortress. Polota-Nau, 33, was aged just one when the Wallabies last won at Eden Park in 1986; his sole win there came for the Waratahs against the Blues in 2009.
“There’s no better challenge for us as a whole group . . . to not even consider whatever they call the ‘hoodoo’ of Eden Park,” Polota-Nau said. “I’ve played there quite a few times.