WARRIORS TRIO OUT WITH CONCUSSION

GLASGOW WARRIORS head coach Danny Wilson has three Scotland internationals — Richie Gray, Tommy Seymour and Chris Fusaro — all sidelined with concussion ahead of their opening Heineken Champions Cup game at the weekend against reigning champions Exeter Chiefs. It is a situation that, of course, concerns Wilson but something he has had to deal with more and more during his years in coaching. ‘You used to have your 15 to 20-per-cent injury rate but that has increased dramatically with concussions,’ said

Wilson. ‘Latterly, from my time at the Cardiff Blues a few years ago, there were far more players out with concussion than there ever were in the past. ‘Again, it comes back to squad size to cope with that. The biggest squads are the ones that can cope with that best. Throw Covid into the mix and international periods, you end up in the position Edinburgh and ourselves have been in missing lots of players.’ The 44-year-old said the approach to dealing with concussion is ‘night and day’ compared to when he played but more could be done, such as improving tacking technique, to help the situation. ‘You do see games now when players go off for concussion and they rarely come back on because it is very strict testing process,’ said Wilson. ‘Those things were not in place in the past and we all played in an era when you got a bang on the head you probably got on with it and probably trained the next week. Now it is far stricter, which is for the better.’