Head injury still sparks pathetic response

O THE reaction to the head injury suffered by full-back Neco Williams during Wales’ group game against England last week shone a light on just how much progress there is still to be made in attitudes towards concussion in sport.

After Williams was poleaxed blocking a fierce shot from Marcus Rashford, he was treated by Wales medics who judged he had passed the sport’s concussion protocols, and allowed him to play on. Dazed and seeing double, he lasted 12 more minutes before he was replaced.

The fact that he was allowed to play on seems absurd and infuriating given how much more we know about the dangers of concussion. Players are competitive and stubborn and teams are playing for high stakes and too often, health comes second.

Football isn’t helped by the macho culture that still pervades it. The former player and boxer Curtis Woodhouse said the decision to stop the game for Williams was pathetic. Williams sent him a message back saying that given he could see 44 players on the pitch, he thought it was reasonable.

I would refer the ‘pathetic’ brigade to the death of former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson, who shot himself in the chest 11 years ago so his brain tissue could be examined for signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease linked to depression and dementia in former players who had taken repeated blows to the head.

The conduct of quite a few people in the aftermath of Williams’ injury could be described as ‘pathetic’. Williams wasn’t one of them.