My original post on this subject was published back in 2014 having seen a challenge by Lauren Koscielny - as the debate on brain injury in football rages - this is my update.:
Ryan Mason retired from professional football in 2018, two years after his skull was fractured in a challenge by Chelsea’s Gary Cahill. Headlines shortly after the incident, speculated as to whether Mason would even survive. Nearly three years later, there is endless discussion as to how the game can respond to a brain injury crisis in football. Potential solutions include compulsory substitution in the case of head injury and concussion subs, but I’m staggered that the most obvious response isn’t discussed at all.
You can watch the Mason/Cahill incident here:
Mason clears the ball before Cahill arrives and makes
contact with the back of his head. I’d simply ask what the reaction would have
been had the challenge been with a foot at ground level but the time lapse between
Mason’s touch on the ball and Cahill’s contact with Mason had been the same as
in this video?
There’d be uproar. It would be described as an appallingly late challenge – a reckless, career threatening assault. Yet because contact was made with the head, the pundits agreed – “Cahill went for the ball. Nothing to see here.”
The distinction is completely lost on me. Football appears to be losing the plot generally right now – as referees go for arcane interpretations of an increasingly complex rules book over the consistent application of common sense. In this instance it could literally be a matter of life of death. Why not start with a principle – a late challenge is treated in the same way, regardless of where it happens on the pitch and which parts of the body are involved. Had Cahill been vilified for his recklessness and faced a lengthy ban – other defenders might think twice before launching themselves into a similar assault.
Concussion subs may be a partial solution – but the root of the problem is clear – it is not OK to throw your head at the ball regardless of what might be in the way. The principle is well established and beyond question when players’ feet are involved – it makes no sense at all to treat their heads differently. Unless, of course, footballer’s brains don’t matter.
