CLARE HURLING MANAGER Davy Fitzgerald has called for an independent doctor to be present at GAA inter-county matches to make judgements in suspected cases of concussion.
Donegal All-Ireland winning boss Jim McGuinness expressed his concerns earlier this week after his county’s attacker Mark McHugh suffered concussion in the recent Ulster final loss to Monaghan.
And Fitzgerald, who witnessed Banner forward John Conlon severely concussed in their Munster semi-final against Cork in June, shares those worries.
“When it involves head injuries. we just have to be so careful. After the Cork game I said I wasn’t happy about different aspects (of the game) but I wouldn’t elaborate on it.
“The reason I didn’t want to is that I wouldn’t want it to be seen we were taking our beating badly. But that really bothered me, that it wasn’t taken care of properly.
“Concussion is a serious thing and I have only learned a bit more about that since. It took John Conlon a while to recover.
“There should be an independent doctor that would make a ruling if a player is not right he has to go off until he is right, so that it wouldn’t be the Clare doctor or the Cork doctor.
“The team doctor could call over an independent doctor to verify it so that some medical person would take responsibility and hold him there until the time is right.
“Naturally in a team situation you are going to try and get the player back on the field as quickly as possible but the safety of the player should be paramount. You see it in boxing, the doctor is there and he calls it and that might not be a bad thing to have.”
Conlon
Pic: INPHO/Morgan Treacy
Fitzgerald outlined how a dangerous situation could have developed if Conlon had played on.
“That day with John Conlon was very funny. He came up to me and said to me “ I don’t what has been happening for the last 5 minutes” and I thought well that is okay now it is sorted.
“But when he came up to me a second time and said the exact same thing to me, I knew I had to take him off and get him out of there straight away. If he had not come up to me for a second time he would have played away.
“That would have been crazy dangerous if that had happened and that is why the head injury issue worries me since that day. I went into hospital with him and it was a great relief that there was nothing seriously wrong.”
However Fitzgerald does not believe the level of physicality in inter-county hurling needs to be diluted.
“I don’t think there is anything wrong with physicality, it is part of our game but it should not be around the head area. Lets not take physicality out of our game.
“I wouldn’t agree with that, but in terms of how we handle things we need to take care with those head injuries. We need to explore something that can done to deal with this.”
Now, there’s a player who’s really kicked on this year. A year ago I was thinking he wouldn’t cut it.
@Louis Jacob: You weren’t the only one. Very glad to be proven wrong.
Never say die attitude great player. Never gives up