Sunday, 17 November 2013

Victory! Rugby facing up to truth as IRB admits "potential link" of concussion ...


By

Sam Peters




PUBLISHED:


22:38, 16 November 2013




|

UPDATED:


23:50, 16 November 2013



Sports governing bodies across the

world are urgently reviewing their approach to head injuries over fears

they could face potentially crippling legal action following a

multi-million dollar settlement in the NFL.


It is increasingly clear the

$765million (£475m) payout to the families of ex-gridiron stars who had

either died or are suffering early onset dementia caused by repeated

concussions has sent shockwaves through sport.


‘Every single contact sport,

including football, is urgently reviewing their approach to concussion

as a result of the NFL payout,’ a well-placed FA source told the Mail on

Sunday. ‘The size of the payout has got everyone’s attention.’


Traumatised: Tottenham players and staff attend to Hugo Lloris


Traumatised: Tottenham players and staff attend to Hugo Lloris’s head injury at Everton on November 3


Last night, in a huge victory for the

Mail on Sunday’s concussion campaign, the International Rugby Board

finally accepted a link exists between repeated concussions and Chronic

Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) — a disease associated with the early

onset of dementia.


‘CTE is a form of dementia, and there

are studies about boxers and American football players who have

suffered repetitive head injuries, so we recognise that there might be a

potential link,’ said the IRB’s chief medical officer Martin Raftery.


The Mail on Sunday has been calling

on rugby union authorities to improve their management of concussion for

months after a string of high-profile incidents where concussed stars

played on following perfunctory examinations.



Barnet at cutting edge with ‘mini-hospital’ at new home


Barnet FC’s new stadium should provide a vision of the future next April as professional football comes to terms with taking head injuries seriously.


The Conference club’s chairman, Tony Kleanthous, announced the biggest sponsorship deal in non-League football history in a move which will transform part of the club’s Hive Stadium into a hi-tech medical centre. Toshiba Medical Systems will provide more than £2million of ‘space age’ scanning equipment in a state-of-the-art ‘mini-hospital’ underneath the main grandstand, yards from the first-team pitch.


The facility will contain cutting edge CT and MRI scanners, ultrasound and X-ray facilities and will be staffed by some of London’s top neurologists.


Mark Holmshaw, of Toshiba, said: ‘These machines are able to fly through the human body in virtual reality in a matter of seconds as if we’re using an Xbox, looking at the brain, the heart, you name it.’


Last night’s news — albeit buried at the bottom of a statement placed on their website without notifying the media — indicates the IRB are waking up to their responsibilities.


Raftery added: ‘Rugby is a physical contact sport and that is part of the fabric and attraction for those who want to play the game. However, our duty is to ensure that the sport implements the very best standards of care to protect our players.’


There are signs of progress in rugby, where concussion is now the most common injury suffered at elite level, with plans to introduce mandatory awareness training for all players and coaches by the start of next season.


But as US researchers continue to unearth cases of CTE in former NFL players — following years of denial by the league — all contact sports are now aware of the financial risks.


The furore surrounding Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas’s decision to allow goalkeeper Hugo Lloris to return to the field after being knocked out a fortnight ago further focused public attention on football’s mismanagement of head trauma.


The issue highlighted the pressures that can be exerted on medical staff by coaches keen to keep their best players on the field.


Dutch football legend Edgar Davids said: ‘Sometimes pressure is applied and that’s why it’s so important to have good doctors around you. They may play professional sport but first and foremost they are human beings.


‘The threat of legal action is always there. The decision always has to be in the hands of the medical department.’


Davids is manager at forward- thinking Barnet, where a £2m sponsorship deal will transform part of the club’s Hive Stadium into a hi-tech medical centre with cutting-edge CT and MRI scanners, ultrasound and X-ray facilities, staffed by top London neurologists.


Their director of football, Paul  Fairclough, who as manager of the England C team is also concerned with the grassroots game, said: ‘We pay scant regard [to concussion] in football. It’s a case of the physio  coming on and saying “Follow my finger”, then “Oh, you’re all right, son, get back on”. It’s criminal. There will be fatalities if we carry on the way we are.


‘It’s going on all over the country, managers bullying physios to keep players on the pitch. I see things going on at lower-level football that frighten the living daylights out of me. We’ve got to take it more seriously.


‘We’re in that culture of where there is blame there is a claim and it will  happen eventually [litigation] and it would devastate a club.’


Last week three more former NFL stars, including Hall-of-Famer Tony Dorsett, revealed they are living with CTE — formerly known as dementia pugilistica — and experts believe there are likely to be many more cases.


IndyCar series champion and three-time Indianapolis 500 champion Dario Franchitti announced his retirement this week after a series of head injuries. Franchitti had been told by doctors he risked serious long-term neurological damage if he raced again after three concussions in 11 years.


IndyCar has required drivers to have baseline tests for several years and this week its rival NASCAR announced it would introduce mandatory testing for all its drivers.



Research delayed by lack of subjects


The IRB’s flagship study into the longterm effects of concussion has been severely delayed after attracting less than a quarter of the volunteers it needs.


Last year, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) were commissioned by the IRB and the New Zealand RU to investigate the health implications of repetitive head traumas and were due to present their findings in September.


That deadline has already been pushed back to next March after only 48 of the 200 former elite players required to compile the study were recruited. The AUT have had even less success attracting cricket and hockey players, attaining only 16 per cent of the participants to act as a control group.


While the AUT cannot disclose any findings so far, Professor Patria Hume – one of the lead investigators – has been assured that the IRB will not suppress the results when they are released in March.










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Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/24937402


Victory! Rugby facing up to truth as IRB admits "potential link" of concussion ...
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