What is a concussion and how do concussions affect athletes?

The AFL recently changed its Concussion Return to Play Guidelines from six up to 12 days. Well, this means that plays might miss a game. It's also a big step forward in allowing players to recover and minimize their risk of long-term repercussions of repeated head trauma and concussions. This is a good step forward in concussion awareness which is such an overlooked yet potentially long-lasting injury that many AFL players unfortunately suffer. This is partly because it's not a visible injury compared to other things such as a broken arm or a sprained ankle where you can specifically see the injury or when it's guarded by the obvious pain if you return to games or training too soon.

 

What is a concussion?

A concussion is considered a mild traumatic brain injury that is in a post or moderate or severe where there are no visible structural changes in imaging reports, such as x-rays or MRIs.

This includes things such as fractures or bleeding and it occurs when there's a sudden and rapid jolt to the head and neck, for example, when players tackle or when they collide. Without getting into too much detail in this video, it causes shearing forces to go through the brain. –think of it like jelly wobbling on a plate. This causes damage to the nerves in the brain, and this can lead to symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, brain fog, light, or sound sensitivity as well as trouble focusing on the objects around you.

Now, symptoms usually start to get better if not feel fully resolved by about 10 to 14 days. However, it can take up to 30 days for the brain itself to fully recover from the injury. So, forcing players to arrest 12 days up from six, is a great improvement. However, it's still not ideal as though the symptoms may be better, it still does not mean that their brains are fully recovered from the injury. Nonetheless, a balance needs to be found and this is still a big step forward in the right direction when it comes to minimizing the long-term risks and consequences of concussions.