How The Mail on Sunday helped to change the game

THE Mail on Sunday’s concussion campaign was launched in September 2013 in response to an alarming rise in head injuries suffered by professional rugby union players allied to mounting evidence linking concussion to early on-set dementia. With NFL chiefs agreeing in 2013 to a $765million (nearly £500m at the time) pay out — later raised to more than $1billion — to former stars suffering neurodegenerative diseases linked to multiple head injuries, The Mail on Sunday called for a raft of changes to the way concussion was managed in rugby union. Since its launch, the concussion campaign has changed the landscape of sport, with rugby making sweeping changes to its concussion protocols — including introducing mandatory concussion education for all professional players, coaches and referees while allowing additional time for medics to assess concussed players and the introduction of independent pitchside doctors.

The campaign has received support in Parliament with respected Labour MP Chris Bryant and Damian Collins, the chairman of the Sport, Media and Culture Select Committee, among its public backers.

‘I support and congratulate The Mail on Sunday for its campaign on concussion and head injuries,’ said Collins.

‘The Sports Minister, Tracey Crouch, will be giving evidence to the select committee and we will certainly be asking her about this in the context of the Government’s duty of care review. The major recent scandals in sport, including child abuse and doping, all have the issue of duty of care at their heart. In these cases, coaches and officials in sports have abused their position and caused harm to the athletes in their care. Coaches also have an obligation to take all reasonable steps to prevent harm and educate athletes on how best to care for themselves.’

Other sports have made changes, too, with cricket, hockey and rugby league among those to have tightened protocols in recent times, although football — which failed the family of former England star Jeff Astle by not conducting promised research following his death in 2002 from ‘industrial disease’ caused by head injuries — is still lagging behind.