THE Professional Footballers’ Association has renewed calls for the introduction of temporary concussion substitutes after fresh controversy over the weekend.
Aston Villa goalkeeper Emi Martinez took a heavy blow to the head in an accidental collision with team-mate Tyrone Mings in the first half of his side’s 4-0 defeat at Newcastle on Saturday, but initially stayed on after lengthy treatment before being replaced shortly after.
The incident provoked fresh debate over head injury protocols, and the PFA has now said current rules are putting players at “serious risk”.
Dr Adam White, head of the PFA’s brain health department, said: “Put simply, the current laws of the game are jeopardising player health and safety.
“Permanent substitutions do not allow medical teams to assess a player with a potentially serious brain injury in an appropriate environment. The rules as they are create an extremely challenging situation and offer no support to medical personnel.”
In December 2020, the International Football Association Board introduced a trial of permanent concussion substitutes – not counting towards a side’s substitute limit.
The Premier League, the Football Association and English Football League subsequently adopted the rule permanently across all professional competitions – a move widely welcomed at the time.
But the PFA continues to push for the introduction of temporary concussion substitutes, which would allow medical staff longer to assess potential injuries before making a decision on whether or not a player needs to be permanently replaced.
The players’ union also expressed alarm that European governing body UEFA is yet to integrate the permanent concussion substitute rule into major competitions including the Champions League, Europa League and Nations League.
White added: “This situation needs to be addressed urgently. As a bare minimum UEFA, as one of football’s major bodies, must lead by example and introduce the available permanent concussion substitution rule. This is an issue the PFA will be raising with UEFA directly.”
Villa’s decision to initially keep Martinez on was heavily criticised on Saturday.
Caretaker boss Aaron Danks said: “We’ve got very professional medical staff, they had been on and assessed him and he was OK to continue.
“Then, obviously things have changed or there was a delayed onset of something that has meant that he’s had to come off.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here