This past Friday night, June 3rd, we all headed towards the Stade de France to watch what I thought would be my first Rugby match. Much to all our surprise, at the start of the game, we realized our mistake– we were watching a Nations League football match (France vs Denmark). The crowd was full of contagious excitement and I couldn’t believe our luck. I was very happy to be able to witness a football game in person, especially in the Stade de France. I saw the players pass the ball from person to person and even use their heads to block it from going to the other team’s goal. This reminded me of all the times we have learned of the risk of head trauma, concussions, and TBIs in sports. In a study by Rodrigues, Lasmar, & Caramelli (2016) they found that “heading the ball accounted for 30.5% of concussions”. When you think of how many people all around the world participate in this sport, that number becomes very scary.
Rodrigues, A. C., Lasmar, R. P., & Caramelli, P. (2016). Effects of Soccer Heading on Brain Structure and Function. Frontiers in Neurology, 7(38). https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2016.00038