Soccer group adopts concussion policy
Toronto Soccer Association hoping to keep players safe with its new safety measures
Eleven-year-old Stella Garvie was playing soccer when a ball — kicked from a couple metres away — hit her in the head and knocked her to the ground.
Unlike her elbow, her head didn’t hurt at all, but that didn’t last long.
“After a day I started getting really, really bad headaches,” she said.
It was weeks before Garvie, who plays rep soccer for Toronto High Park FC, was allowed back on the field.
It’s not easy sitting out, but it’s better than the alternative — returning to the beautiful game too soon and risking reinjury.
In an effort to help keep young, developing brains safe, the Toronto Soccer Association has implemented a new concussion policy this season.
“We recognized that (concussions were) being downplayed by many of our coaches,” Jacques Konig, the association’s vice-president said.
The association couldn’t find a written concussion policy within the sport so they reached out to the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital’s concussion centre to help them develop one.
A slow return to game play is a major tenet of the new policy, which is mandatory for the association’s 2,500 competitive-league players and optional for the remainder of its 24,000 recreational players.
It also requires coaches to report player concussions, making it easier for the association to track injuries.
Under the association’s new policy, players can only return to game play once they’ve been cleared by a medical professional.
This season, which is about three weeks in, four concussions have been reported in players aged 8 to 12 — none from heading the ball, Konig noted.
In Ontario, 2,000 youth concussions from playing soccer were reported to emergency rooms between 2003 and 2013, a study published this year in the Journal of Pediatrics found. Overall, there were about 31,000 concussions from all sports, the study reported.
A concussion happens when a person’s head or body is hit with enough force that it causes the brain to move inside the skull, explained Dr. Nick Reed, a clinician scientist and codirector of Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital’s concussion centre.
After attending mandatory preseason concussion training, the association’s 150 competitive league coaches will now be responsible for taking any team players they suspect may have a concussion out of the game.
“We don’t think it will stop concussions because that’s simply the nature of the play,” Konig said.
But the association is hoping the policy will raise awareness of concussions and ensure injured players return to soccer gradually.