The Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) has added its weight to calls for newly-introduced trials around concussions substitutions to go further.
The PFA, the union representing professional players, has said temporary concussion substitutions need to be considered, in addition to the permanent substitutions which are currently offered under the Premier League trial.
Their comments come after the use of the first concussion substitution in football, after West Ham’s Issa Diop was replaced after a clash of heads with Anthony Martial of Manchester United.
Both players received on-pitch treatment for two minutes before returning to the match after the 36th minute collision, but Diop was then substituted at half time under the new concussion protocol.
PFA Assistant Chief Executive, Simon Barker, has now said he believes that both permanent and temporary concussion substitutions could have been introduced as part of the 18-month trial.
“Player safety and welfare is paramount. Temporary replacements have been used successfully in other sports,” he says.
“IFAB’s 18-month trial period should have included parallel trials for both types of concussion substitutions within football.”
While the PFA has welcomed the fact that English football is taking the lead on this vital issue, they have echoed calls from campaigners including brain injury charity Headway for the trials to go further.
“We welcome West Ham United’s use of the new protocols, it represents a significant step forward for the game,” says Simon.
“However, we still believe that temporary replacements may help medical teams with additional assessment time and the opportunity to conduct the assessment in an appropriate environment.
“We also think that the introduction of a temporary substitute could allow a match to restart with neither side numerically disadvantaged, potentially reducing pressure on players and medical teams to make quick decisions on whether the injured player can continue.”
He adds: “We are in complete agreement with the principle of ‘if in doubt, sit them out’. However, we want to highlight that this threshold does not apply exclusively to the use of permanent substitutions.
“Moving forward, education for players, coaching staff, managers and medical teams regarding the impact of brain injuries and the use of concussion substitutions is going to be vital.”
