The rejection of short-term concussion substitutes has dumbfounded the spouse of former England worldwide Dave Watson, who resides with dementia.
The International Football Association Board (IFAB) confirmed on Saturday that the trial of short-term concussion substitutes within the Premier League, France’s Ligue 1 and Major League Soccer within the United States had not been authorized.
Quite a few former gamers reside with the impression of head trauma, together with ex-England defender Watson.
It is three years since spouse Penny launched an announcement revealing he had a neurodegenerative illness that was “most likely” introduced on by head accidents and repeated heading of the ball throughout his taking part in days.
Penny Watson has pushed for assist and alter ever for the reason that former Sunderland and Manchester City participant’s analysis, with the IFAB’s inaction on this matter infuriating her.
“I don’t know whether it’s ostrich head in the sand, ignorance or just protectionism because they’re worried about financial implications, I cannot fathom it,” she informed the PA information company.
“I cannot understand why they threw out a temporary concussion substitute for players.
“I can’t understand it because it means that they can get the guy off the pitch pretty quickly, therefore a proper medical assessment can go ahead as quickly as possible.
“The fans are not hanging around – sometimes it can go on for about 10 minutes, so it means all these games last a long time and the fans lose interest.
“But also it changes the pattern of the play if somebody’s actually just starting to be on top and they break off for 10 minutes, it can make such a difference.
“There’s three factors there so to take somebody off, bring somebody on quickly, just to take their place like they did with blood things in rugby and stuff.
“It’s just, pardon the pun, a no-brainer and why they’re not doing it I do not know.
“Whether they think they can’t cope with doing the permanent concussion substitutes at the same time as introducing temporary concussion, I don’t know… but come on!”
The Premier League mentioned it “cannot understand the decision” whereas the Professional Footballers’ Association additionally spoke out towards it, saying almost 80 per cent of its members supported a trial in a latest session.
Charity Headway mentioned lawmakers had misplaced “further credibility” with a call that led chief government Luke Griggs to query their dedication to participant security.
“All you have to do is look at any of the previous World Cups or European Championships to see FIFA’s claim they’re putting the safety of players and their health as a priority is simply not the case,” he informed the PA information company.
“I think it’s fair to say FIFA, UEFA and IFAB have never taken the issue of brain injuries in football seriously.
“To claim they’re doing so, I’m afraid, is not something we can accept.”
FIFA president Gianni Infantino mentioned on Saturday that they have been ready to obtain extra data on the implementation on everlasting concussion substitutions, saying it’s higher “to take zero risk”.
Griggs accepts that the short-term substitution idea is just not “foolproof” however mentioned the everlasting substitutions has “made no change to the way that players are assessed”.
Asked if he had considerations concerning the present era of gamers, the Headway CEO mentioned: “The reality is we may not know for many more years but what we do know is enough.
“We have enough science now, we have enough evidence now, to know that there is an issue here.
“It hasn’t just gone away with the introduction of lightweight footballs because a lightweight football travels at speeds that can cause damage to the brain.
“The ball strikes the head at a faster pace, causing more energy to go into the brain and twist and turn inside the skull. We don’t yet know the extent of that issue.
“But we do know we need to do something now and limit exposure to repetitive head injuries.”
On the matter of short-term concussion substitutes, FIFA director of medical Dr Andrew Massey mentioned their present method is to try to “decrease the likelihood of these false negatives”.
“The gravity of brain injury needs to be highlighted,” he mentioned. “Everybody also agrees that a brain injury or a concussion can take 72 hours to manifest itself – three days before you could potentially get symptoms.
“What we want to do is to avoid returning an injured brain to play before they are ready.
“If we did that, that’s what we would call a false negative, where we assess somebody, we think they’re negative to the injury, and we let them play on. That’s the most dangerous.”