My eyes are glued to the screen as I watch my favorite team, Manchester United, pass the ball around. I watch Wayne Rooney run at full speed and the next thing you know, within a blink of an eye, he is on the ground holding his head, with blood dripping down his head. When I watched the replay I see two heads collide like two cars crashing into each other, and I look away in awe. In most sports, there is a concussion protocol that adresses head injuries and ensures extra precaution, but in soccer they let the player recover and they bandage his head, and they let him back onto the field as if nothing ever happened. This is a major problem in a sport that keeps growing bigger every year.
In the 2014 World Cup final, German player Cristoph Kramer took a blow to the head and was horribly concussed. FIFA's protocol for head injuries requires that the player needs to be assessed by doctors for a few minutes before he can play again. According to the doctors treating Kramer, he was fine to continue playing, therefore, "clearing" the concussion protocol. He came up to the referee fourteen minutes later and asked him if he was playing in the final. It was puzzling how he was still playing despite taking such a bad blow to the head which showed flaws in FIFA's protocol of treating head injuries. A concussion is not a typical injury since the person receiving the blow might look fine to the crowd while, in fact, being physically unfit to play.
FIFA should take a look at other sports to find a better solution to head injuries. In the NFL, they take out the players immediately for the rest of the game, and they make the player go through a one week concussion protocol in which the players must be cleared by an actual therapist before playing again. Recently, star quarterback Cam Newton suffered a concussion, and he was forced to miss a game because he was not cleared from doctors as he failed to pass through the concussion protocol. FIFA should take a similar precautions even if it means that the team has to miss its star player. It is better for the player to recover fully and have a clear mind rather than a player who is concussed and not sure what he is doing in the middle of the game.
The effects, including depression and suicidal thoughts as some of worst effects, of these head injuries can be devastating in the long run. If FIFA doesn't take action soon, it will set a very bad example for younger soccer players that are trying to break through into the professional level, adding to the risks that these young players take to pursue their dream of being a professional soccer player.
