The skull fracture suffered by the Mexican Wolverhampton footballer Raúl Jiménez and the image of David Luiz, from Arsenal, on the pitch, playing normally despite the blood that flowed from his head, has reopened the debate in England
on the need to Put the welfare of the players before the business.
The commotion after the clash between the two players occurred, not so much because Jiménez had to withdraw on a stretcher and with assisted oxygen from the field, being immediately transferred to a hospital, but because
Luiz, the second protagonist of the incident, was applied a bandage and continued playing until the break, that is, 40 more minutes
.
Arsenal justified it by apologizing that it followed the recommendations of its doctor, but
English Federation (FA) regulations state that any footballer who may have suffered a concussion must leave the field.
Now, is it possible to detect a problem of this type in the short time available to a doctor on the pitch and with the pressure on him?
Responds Michael Gray, a professor at the University of East Anglia specializing in cognitive neuroscience and leader of a study on how blows to the head and dementia are linked in soccer.
"
I don't think you have to all jump on top of the doctors who are on the pitch and who evaluate the players.
Those doctors are in a very difficult position, having to make a very important diagnosis in a very short period of time. a lot of pressure to make the right decision and they are not in the right environment, "Gray explained to Efe.
"
They have in front of a player who may have suffered a brain injury and who in most cases will not be completely sincere in what he says, because he wants to return to the field quickly
, because he does not know if he is really injured as he does not yet feel the symptoms" he added.
According to the teacher, the footballer who has just suffered
a head-to-head collision has an "initial shock" and may not be able to make a good decision about his physical condition
.
"It is that you can have a damaged brain and with a damaged brain you cannot make good decisions," he added.
What happened this Sunday on the Emirates Stadium lawn was nothing more than bad fortune, which ended with
Jiménez being operated on for a skull fracture in hospital, but also with the recklessness of Luiz playing 40 minutes with a possible concussion.
Eliminating these variables from soccer is impossible and avoiding blows to the head in games is not feasible, but Gray points to the possibility of introducing a new rule that would avoid situations like David Luiz's.
"
It is important that a substitution time is applied in which the player can be diagnosed correctly," he
said.
This initiative was recently joined by Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool coach, who assured that allowing an extra substitution for players who have a concussion "makes sense."
In that line, even more resounding, also had an impact Ederson Moraes, Manchester City goalkeeper, who suffered a head injury in a clash with Sadio Mané in 2017. "
When there is a blow to the head, there has to be a substitution, it can or the player can't follow. Maybe you feel fine at first, but later you can pay the consequences,
"said the Brazilian.
It was also very clear Ryan Mason, who had to retire in 2018 after suffering a skull fracture in a Chelsea-Hull City in 2017. "
I was not surprised by what I saw on the field. I have been saying all these years, I was going to return. to happen, and it will continue to happen until we change the perception of these hits
and the protocols around them are revised, "Mason told SkySports.
"You don't have to do what is best for one team or another. You have to take the player to a separate room, have the doctors look at him and see what damage he has. If he continues to play without a complete analysis, he runs the risk of continuing head-butting and increasing the severity of the problem, "he added.
Several associations have already asked for the protocols to be reviewed, but when Professor Gray is asked whether this incident will help football reflect and change its rules, he is quite pessimistic.
"I will give you an example.
In the 2014 World Cup there were six incidents similar to this and two in which there were players with a concussion on the field,
" he recalled. "People said after that: 'things are going to change': but it did not happen and there were many incidents later in which it seemed that everything was going to change, but nothing," he added. "From my perspective, the well-being of the footballer should come before the business, but as we saw this Sunday, that does not always happen," Gray concluded.
