DR KEVIN MORAN, Donegal’s team doctor, has used the example of former All-Ireland medallist Ryan Bradley to explain why concussion protocols must not be altered.
Dr Moran is part of the Medical, Scientific and Welfare committee that has strongly recommended that the GAA ignores calls for a concussion sub rule.
A motion to Annual Congress earlier this year proposed that the rule be introduced but was redirected to the committee which Dr Moran is a member of for consideration.
The well meaning motion proposed that a player with suspected concussion be assessed on the sideline and then returned to play if a quick concussion test is passed, similar to a blood substitution.
But the committee explained that no sideline test can definitively rule out concussion so any player with symptoms must stay off the field.
If a player is mistakenly returned to action with concussion then Second Impact Syndrome, which results in death, can occur in the event of a second blow.
Dr Moran recalled the concussion suffered by Donegal’s hard running half-forward Bradley in 2013 to explain how notoriously difficult concussion can be to diagnose and how easy it could be to leave a player on the field.
“I am nearly sure it was the semi-final against Down in 2013 and Ryan had two concussions that year,” said Dr Moran. “Anyway, he felt a bit funny and I was the pitch side doctor that day and I went in and he seemed a bit dizzy. While I was talking to him, he jumped up, the ball had been kicked out from the other end, he ran over, caught the ball and turned around and soloed up the field and kicked the ball over the bar, soloed about 30 yards.
Then he went down again. I was on the side line still so he called me back in. I went back in and he said, ‘look, I can see four, six goalposts, everything is waving all over the place’. I said, ‘Ryan, you’re coming off’. So I was bringing him off and Rory (Gallagher), who is our present manager, asked me very politely where was I going with him?!
“I said, ‘he’s concussed’. Rory said, ‘how can he be concussed, he’s after doing that?’ I actually, for a finish up, had to put Ryan into hospital that night because that injury did evolve over the subsequent 24 hours. I think that one case is a good example of how difficult it can be to diagnose concussion.”
Dublin full-back Rory O’Carroll famously remained on the pitch for the last 16 minutes of the 2013 All-Ireland final after suffering concussion because they’d used all their substitutes.
Since then, the GAA and O’Carroll himself have been proactive about getting the message out that any player showing any of the symptoms of concussion must be removed from play immediately. Dr Moran believes the message has generally been heeded about the dangers of brain injury.
“I do think so, certainly at county level and it’s filtered down to the clubs as well,” he said. “What we couldn’t over emphasise is that for 95 per cent of the cases, where there isn’t a doctor present, then the manager or the coach, whoever takes players off, must do so, particularly underage players where there is a suspicion of concussion because of the risk of Second Impact Syndrome.
Thankfully we haven’t experienced that yet in the GAA. It’s a very, very rare occurrence but when it does happen it’s devastating because there’s no treatment for it. That’s it. It’s irreversible.”
The MSW report also ruled out the introduction of appointing independent team doctors, stressing the ‘high levels of confidence in the professionalism’ of those currently in place.
Aside from the concussion issue, the report also gives an update on the GAA’s injury database as well as details of a defibrillator exchange programme. New anti doping measures are outlined too with blood testing to be brought in for 2016 alongside urine testing.
