Women concussion risk
Brain damage threat is double the rate for men
Women and girls are at double the risk of suffering brain injury in football and rugby, despite playing to the same rules as men, MPS were told yesterday.
In evidence that raises fresh questions of sports governing bodies and their concussion protocols, Parliament was told that men were often prioritised in the provision of medical care and that there was an absence of research in women’s sport.
“While the rules for women’s and men’s football are exactly the same, the risk of concussion in women’s football is about twice that as men’s football,” said Dr Willie Stewart, a consultant neuropathologist from the University of Glasgow.
“So the risk of brain injury is double. And that repeats itself through rugby and various other sports where the rules are exactly the same. We definitely have a concern about the long-term consequences. If you’re twice as high a risk of developing a symptomatic brain injury, what does that mean many years down the line? We really need to get ahead with that research.”
Alex Davies-jones, an MP who sits on the parliamentary committee for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, described those differences as “quite shocking” and asked what could be done with protocols.
Dr Stewart replied by referencing “startling differences” in forthcoming research between how brain injuries were handled. “They’re obviously biological differences which may contribute to the risk,” he said. “We’ve also got some evidence that, at adolescent level, there may be a difference in mechanism of injury and also a difference in approach to management of injuries. I think we should ask questions of whether we are focusing attention in the right place.
“If a school or club has a physio or doctor available on a Saturday and there are a couple of matches on, they should be standing on the sidelines of the ladies’ game, because that’s where the brain injury is going to happen. But inevitably they’re standing on the sidelines of the men’s game. I don’t think we’re giving it nearly enough attention.”
The parliamentary inquiry follows the legal action being taken by a group of former professional men’s rugby players who have been diagnosed with early onset dementia, as well as research, led by Dr Stewart, which showed that professional footballers are 3½ times more likely to die of neurodegenerative disease. Dr Stewart said there was sufficient evidence for football to reduce exposure to heading on the “balance of probabilities” of its risk.
He also described the known incidence rate of concussion in men’s professional rugby as “totally unacceptable”.
Richard Boardman, of Rylands Law, who is representing more than 150 current and former rugby union players in a legal action, said parliamentary scrutiny was long overdue.
“Given the scale of the problem, as evidenced by the number of players coming forward – not just in rugby union, but in rugby league and football – now is not the time for the governing bodies to maintain their ostrich-like approach,” he said.
Hayley Mcqueen, the daughter of former Scotland and Manchester United defender Gordon Mcqueen, who has recently been diagnosed with dementia, wants immediate restrictions on heading in training.
“We know now, and someone will be to blame if we don’t do something about it,” she said. “There needs to be changes in the law, within football governing bodies, as to how much a player heads the ball and not just at under-11s level.”