Villa should have known: ‘If in doubt, sit them out’
OVER the weekend, the Concussion in Sport Group met in Amsterdam. Bankrolled by governing bodies such as FIFA, it is a gathering of ‘experts’ who get together every four years to look at research and publish a Consensus Statement which sports use to shape their concussion protocols. Word is it’s been a shambles in Amsterdam: dismissive attitudes from so-called specialists, applause in the room when it was ludicrously suggested head impacts aren’t directly linked to neurodegenerative disease. And it matched the shambolic scenes at St James’ Park as Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez was allowed to continue after the right knee of Tyrone Mings crashed into his temple. Martinez was treated. Then he played on. Then he had to be substituted. Of course he did. Most of us could see Martinez was struggling. I get that medical staff at football clubs are put in a difficult position. They may be nervous advising the manager to substitute a player. But are clubs like Villa really doing all they can? Have they forgotten the ‘if in doubt, sit them out’ mantra they should follow? I was glad Match of the Day highlighted the Martinez incident on Saturday night, with Alan Shearer rightly saying temporary concussion substitutes are a must. I’m sick of saying that myself. You may see what happened to Martinez described as a ‘head knock’. It’s not. It’s ‘brain trauma’. To call it a ‘knock’ is only trivialising the injury. It scares me that it will take something fatal before football finally wakes up.