The consequences of head butts remain undetected for a long time. But an English study has shown that ex-soccer players die three times as often as other people as a result of brain diseases.
Foto: imago images/Beautiful Sports
There is no Bundesliga game in the recent past that was characterized by such a crash potential as the wear and tear between Eintracht Frankfurt and 1. FC Köln (1: 1) last weekend. Constant interruptions because soccer players clashed like battering rams. The result: three substitutions after head injuries, two bleeding noses and a laceration. On the Frankfurt side, Erik Durm suffered a concussion and was replaced, Timothy Chandler got a laceration and continued to play with a turban-like bandage. Immediately afterwards, the 31-year-old said: “It was a bigger cut and at the beginning I thought it couldn’t go on. At halftime, I was sewn in 15 minutes. The next day his club announced that there was no medical risk.
On the Eintracht homepage, Chandler also assured that there were no after-effects to be feared. “If there was anything to be feared, I would have been replaced immediately. There is nothing left but a scar. It doesn’t look nice, but it goes on and on. «It was not that fast again in Berlin with Timo Baumgartl from 1. FC Union. In a seemingly dramatic situation in the home game against Arminia Bielefeld (1-0), he suffered a severe concussion.
The accumulation of head injuries on matchday eight was certainly not the product of recklessness, but it did affect teams that see high physical effort as the essence of their approach. Frankfurt coach Oliver Glasner assessed the fact that at times “five players were lying on the ground with head injuries” as proof that “no one gave themselves anything”.
Robert Percy Marshall from RB Leipzig has repeatedly encouraged more sensitivity to the subject of head injuries. The team doctor’s thesis is: “Brain injuries are still an underestimated problem in professional football, especially since late-stage damage such as neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases are possible even after the end of a career.” affect the brain «, that is 40 times your own weight.
A study by researchers at the University of Glasgow, which compared the causes of death of 7,676 former Scottish football professionals (born between 1900 and 1976) with around 23,000 non-athletes, recently produced shocking results: Ex-professionals died three and a half times more often from the effects of a neurodegenerative disease . With Alzheimer’s as at least one of the responsible causes of death, the risk is even five times higher.
When alarming numbers of brain damage from the National Football League (NFL) came to the public in the USA, the respected Berlin brain tumor expert Peter Vajkoczy pointed out in an article in the “Sportärztezeitung” that the problem of prevention and safe isolation of those affected was an issue in the case of head injuries “should not only accept the classic high-risk sports such as American football or ice hockey, but also European football.” For a long time, however, he ignored the danger of a traumatic brain injury in the heat of the moment. In most cases, the symptoms resolve completely within seven to ten days; but 10 to 15 percent have symptoms persist for a long time.
Bundesliga professional Benjamin Pavard, who played for FC Bayern, provided a negative example this summer. The French international remained dazed on the ground in the European Championship group game against Germany after Robin Gosens hit him in the face in the knee. The defender continued to play after a brief treatment, although he later admitted: “I was knocked out for ten to 15 seconds.” That would actually have been a case for a substitution, especially since all European Championship participants signed the so-called “Concussion Charter” of the European association Uefa had signed. Accordingly, every player with a suspected concussion should be removed from the field. Neurologists then made the suggestion to allow temporary replacement in these cases. After all, it is a problem that team doctors make decisions on the sidelines not only under time pressure, but also under the pressure of the club to succeed.
The Medical Commission of the German Football Association (DFB), headed by national team doctor Tim Meyer, has taken on the subject time and again in order to improve management of head injuries. Further training events were held for the team doctors in 2019, and the trainer colloquium was also processed. The medical assistants of the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga can also watch the relevant scene on video at the coaching benches to see how hard an impact was.
So-called baseline tests are now standard. “That means that players are neurologically examined once when they are healthy. This baseline value can later be compared in the event of a head injury, ”said Meyer two years ago. »It is an instrument that helps to decide when a player is fit again. I think that with this battery we are actually quite well positioned in terms of measures. “
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