Concussion in soccer

has barely rated a mention recently. How dare I even mention it when there is something called the "Women's World Cup" being played here and across the pond?

Regular readers of my witterings will know I managed to concuss myself some weeks back. As concussion goes it was not serious but I was very conscious of the after effects. Perhaps they were more noticeable in someone who just happens to have a very poor sense of balance at any time. Yes, I really noticed it. I am still not fully recovered all these weeks later. 

So how is it that people can play soccer and get concussion and go on playing? Now they may not go on playing immediately but they are often back on the field just a few days later. Is this really wise?

I tried to find some information before writing this because I had a brief conversation with two men I know last week about concussion in football - our sort of football, not the American sort. One of them said to me, "Concussion is more severe now than it was when the game started. It's because the players are bigger and stronger and faster. When they knock into each other it packs a real punch." Ugh!

I have never watched a football match or a soccer match. I have no desire to do either. Yes, I see snippets during the news services and on big screens in other places. Those snippets are enough to tell me I don't want to see any more. It doesn't excite me in any way. I wince each time two or three players collide with each other - and don't get me started on the way they start a rugby match! 

Apparently more than ten percent of serious injuries in soccer are concussion injuries among men and boys and about twenty percent of injuries among women and girls are concussion injuries. The statistics do not take into account the continual hitting of the head with the ball. Why the difference you ask? I suggest it has something to do with the fact that women are generally smaller and lighter than men who play the same sport. (If ever there was a reason to consider the issue of transgender people in sport surely this is it?) 

All this does not consider the damage that continued "heading" of the ball can do over many years. Who thought that one up? It's madness. No wonder Middle Cat didn't want her two playing such games on a regular basis. 

The two men and I briefly discussed this after one of them inquired as to whether I had "recovered". They are retired and they were enjoying a leisurely coffee after going to the gym. (Yes, they had drunk water as well.) Their "workouts" there are probably suited to their age and state of health. One of them still does some rowing. They both play golf about once a week. I imagine they are reasonably fit for their age. 

"I can tell you one thing we have never done Cat," one of them said. I looked at him and waited. "We have never done any boxing."

No. Boxing is absolute madness. There is no sport at all in a "game" designed to knock your opponent out. Who on earth would want to actually want to hit someone until they had a concussion?