George North down against England on the weekend
Wales will have instant video replays available to their medical staff for the remainder of the Six Nations tournament to avoid a repeat of an incident where one of their players continued playing after losing consciousness on the field.
Wales have come under criticism after winger George North played on following a clash of heads with a teammate in the second half of the 21 / 16 loss to England in Cardiff on Friday. He did not undergo a mandatory test for concussion.
In an interview posted on the Welsh Rugby Union’s website on Monday, the national medical officer, Prav Mathema, said team doctors did not see the incident involving North and that he was lucid when they arrived to treat him.
“Having seen it since, obviously, there is no doubt that he looks like he has a momentary loss of consciousness,” Mathema said, “and in that case he should definitely be removed from the field of play.”
Mathema said the incident has made his medical team look at where its protocols need to improve.
“For the next 4 games of the Six Nations, we are certainly going to have instant video replay for both our home and away matches,” he said. “We’ve also had this discussion with World Rugby, and we are hopeful that our discussions will spark some form of global intervention as well with regards to this.”
World Rugby, the sport’s governing body, said on Saturday that it had requested a full report from the WRU about the incident, which reopened the debate about the handling of concussion in the sport.
North was also accidentally kicked in the head by an opponent in the first half of the match at Millennium Stadium. He was temporarily replaced while he underwent concussion assessment.
Mathema says North is “symptom-free” after concussion evaluation on Monday, and has been since Friday. He has started his return-to-play protocol and could be available for Sunday’s match against Scotland in Round 2 of the Six Nations.
SuperSport
Thanks for putting this one up GBS, you know how often I have put articles about about concussion etc as feel it is so important. There has been a lot said up here about this incident, just didn’t get a chance until now so when I came to put an article up was glad to see you had already done so. There are so many questions for me about this and I am gobsmacked that they are saying he could be available for Sunday’s game at Murrayfield.
Wales will not face sanctions after wing George North remained on the field following a second blow to the head in the 21-16 loss to England .
World Rugby – the sport’s governing body – says North should not have played on after TV replays appeared to show him being knocked unconscious in the 61st minute.
However, it accepts the Wales team medical staff did not see the incident
Absolutely unbelievable from World Rugby!!! This just confirms to me that a lot of their so called concussion protocol is merely lip service. How can they say he should have gone off, after not one but two apparent head blows and possible loss of consciousness (however brief), but then let it go because the Wales medical team claim not to have seen the incident, surely the fact that the medical staff took him off for concussion test after the kick he took to his head and then went on to treat him after his second head knock makes them liable. So can a doctor claim innocence if he doesn’t treat me properly for a broken neck I may get in an accident because he didn’t see the accident! Surely it is part of the job of any competent medical staff to be able to diagnose properly. So many people say that the incident was replayed on the big screen so how could no one (all the management and other 22 players in the squad included) not have drawn the attention to the medical staff of how serious it was even if as they claim they didn’t see it. Then this also brings me to question what is the role of all of the match officials in all of this, if there is no specific laws in place that allows the match officials, either on field or TMO to overrule the medical opinion in cases like these then maybe they should be put in place as soon as possible. Would be interested to hear if anyone knows if any such laws are already in place.
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