Bracken: Head injury ‘scandal’ must end
ENGLAND World Cup winner Kyran Bracken today condemns rugby’s failure to take decisive action over head injuries as ‘a scandal’.
The former Saracens scrum-half is part of Progressive Rugby, a lobby group whose campaign to reduce the risk of brain damage included publicly rebuking the Lions for selecting Luke CowanDickie the week after the Exeter hooker had been knocked out in the Premiership final.
“Any system that allows a player to play again seven days after being knocked out is a scandal,’’ Bracken told The Rugby Paper. “Those are the bare facts as they apply to Luke Cowan-Dickie.
“It is a scandal and nobody will persuade me otherwise. It is a scandal that after years of highlighting concussion no decisive action has been taken. Progressive Rugby’s opinion is that World Rugby still use a flawed system in relation to the HIA (Head Injury Assessment).
“Come on guys, you need to make changes. This is crazy. Doctors would advise you not to fly straight after you’ve been knocked out. Yet CowanDickie flew to Edinburgh to join up with the Lions just a matter of hours after being knocked-out in the final at Twickenham.
“Being knocked out means that the brain shuts down. That is a major trauma. I was knocked out so often during my career that I cannot put a number on exactly how many.
“The more scary ones are the sub-concussive blows. The effects come a week or so later; loss of sleep, confusion, forgetfulness and a horrid feeling that the mind is not working properly.’’
Progressive Rugby consists of ex-internationals, senior teachers and eminent physicians including Bill Ribbans, consultant trauma and orthopaedic surgeon and professor of sports medicine.
Bracken said: “I asked Bill: ‘Why is it in boxing that if a boxer gets knocked out he cannot box for 90 days?’ And Bill said: ‘Because someone died.’
“Does that mean we have to wait until, heaven forbid, a professional rugby player in the Premiership or the PRO14 dies from a blow to the head? Tragically, a number of players in France have already lost their lives.
“If that happens here, there would be no rugby as a consequence. There would have to be a ban on
all matches pending an investigation. I am not scare-mongering. I am speaking out because I love the game of rugby.
“It scares me when I hear of eminent specialists expressing their fears that someone will die on the field. I have three sons who all play rugby and that scares me all the more.
“Everyone, from medical experts to ex-players and parents, is saying we have a problem. So why aren’t we taking decisive action to do our very best to preempt such a catastrophic scenario?’’
Progressive Rugby put a raft of proposals to World Rugby six months ago, calling on the governing body to impose a reduction on contact in training, a limit to the number of internacaution tional matches for any player in one season and the introduction of a ‘career health passport’.
They also called for the return-to-play protocols for players recovering from head injuries to be extended ‘to at least three weeks’. Cowan-Dickie was in action for the Lions seven days after his knock-out at Twickenham.
In response to Progressive Rugby’s statement questioning the Cornishman’s immediate return, head coach Warren Gatland said that the player had been cleared by ‘ a world-renowned specialist on concussion’. His identity was not disclosed.
“Are World Rugby going to be pro-active, or reactive?’’ Bracken said. “At the very least they ought to be erring on the side of but they aren’t even doing that.
“Is it safe to be knocked out one week and play the next week? It’s not. It’s dangerous and people are being put at risk. I say to World Rugby: “It’s not safe, trust me. And they say: ‘Prove it.’
“I can’t do that but, here’s the thing, they can’t prove to me that it is safe. So instead of running the risk of players dying or suffering with the early onset of dementia, I personally say: ‘Let’s have the equivalent of a seat-belt so that anyone knocked out doesn’t play for a month.’
“When someone thought that seat belts would be a good way of reducing deaths from road accidents, the car manufacturers objected. Now we all use them as a matter of course. Rugby has prevaricated for far too long over devising its own seat belt in relation to concussion.
“Why do we need a legal case to make a change?’’
Progressive Rugby’s policy is ‘to work with World Rugby as teammates, not opponents’. They are not part of the legal action being taken by Rylands Law against the RFU, WRU and the governing body on behalf of some 150 players suffering from dementia which they claim is the result of brain damage caused on the rugby field.
Two of them, England’s World Cup winning hooker Steve Thompson and former Wales back row forward Alix Popham, are also part of the @ProgressiveRugby group whose other high-profile figures include James Haskell, Jamie Cudmore and current Welsh Lion, Josh Navidi.
World Rugby chairman Sir Bill Beaumont has repeatedly said: “Player welfare is, and always has been, our priority at all levels.We have continuously acted on research and scientific information as it has become available. The science continues to evolve and we will evolve with it.’’