The Concussion Blog

There has been some recent gain in the area of concussion in the sport of soccer, or futbol that is.  Since the Gael Clichy incident here in the States more news stories have been about players missing games due to head injuries than those staying on the pitch – which is good.

The most recent – and high profile – is of Didier Drogba of Chelsea, being knocked out by an errant goalie punch and falling to Earth like a lifeless manikin;

The striker, 33, was rushed to hospital following a spectacular aerial collision with Norwich keeper John Ruddy in the 65th minute.

He was released later that evening and spent the night at home recovering from mild concussion.

The report from Monday’s Sun indicates that he will be out of his next scheduled match, playing for his home country, Ivory Coast on Saturday.  Regardless of that, Drogba did not sustain a “mild concussion”, he was clearly concussed from plain viewing and further reports state that he was not “fully conscious” for about 30 minutes.

I continue to be amazed at how people can qualify concussions, especially as mild, when each individual and mechanism of injury is unique.  Could Drogba be experiencing symptoms that are not very severe, i.e. diffuse headache, tiredness, etc.?  Of course he can but those symptoms and decreased brain function could last some time, ask Sidney Crosby of the NHL.

It really should not take spectacular injuries like this one for awareness to be put on brain injuries.  In fact injuries are part of every sport and as we have stated multiple times that is not the issue, rather the proper management of the injury remains the issue at hand.