‘Out of our hands’ - Coaches say head injury substitutions shouldn’t be their call
Published:Monday | November 2, 2020 | 12:13 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
As trials for concussion substitutions in football are being proposed to begin next year, Humble Lion head coach Andrew Price and national senior women’s team head coach Hubert Busby agree that coaches should not influence decisions on whether a player can continue after a head injury.
The Concussion Expert Group, which met on October 21, formally recommended that the International Football Association Board (IFAB) start trials for substitutions for concussion-related injuries in January 2021 for interested competitions.
The IFAB said that the trials would better assess how the framework could be incorporated within the current laws of the game.
Price says that such calls should be left to the medical team as they are better equipped to make the assessment.
“Coaches are not doctors,” he said. “And that is why you have medical staff within your staff, and they make the determination whether the play can continue or not.
“And the concussion protocol is one such determination that a medical person will have to make for their players. It’s not the coaches who need to make the decision. That must rest with the medical team.”
Busby says that having a medical doctor independent of the two teams to do the assessment would be beneficial to making the concussion substitution effective.
“I feel that’s the best way to go in terms of the well-being of the player but also the integrity of the sport because now, you have brought somebody outside of the two nations, or in this case, it might be two clubs that you might be able to look at,” Busby said.
INDEPENDENT FINAL DECISIONS
Neurologist Dr Carl Bruce agrees with Busby about having an independent party making a final decision on the status of the player in such cases but says that all stakeholders should be involved in some way.
“In the heat of a game, there is always going to be a conflict of interest with their teammate and the coach,” he said. “And so it’s nice when you have an independent person who makes the final decision if there is not [a] consensus.
“So what I would say is everybody involved in the game should have a discussion on it, but where there is no consensus, the team doctor or independent person should be allowed to make the final call.”
The laws of the game only allow for three substitutions per match. However, it has been temporarily adjusted to five to address the physical strain on players caused by congested schedules because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Busby says that he is confident about any potential changes that would be regarded to make the proposal work given the football fraternity’s ability to adjust to different situations.
“I think the idea that we are able to have these discussions, or to put things in place for the short and long-term sustainability of football, and again with always putting the best interest of the athlete at the front and centre of everything, is very important,” he said. “The sooner those things can start, the better the game can be. Make adjustments and then kind of, hopefully, get to a situation where everybody is good with what has been proposed.”