Headgear does not prevent brain injury in rugby playersRSS Feed

Protective headgear fails to prevent brain injury during contact sports such as rugby, according to an expert.

Dr Michael Cusimano, a neurosurgeon at St Michael's Hospital, has said that existing headgear and mouth guards do not protect rugby players from brain injury and spinal injury to a satisfactory standard.

A study carried out by the doctor and published in journal Neurosurgery says that an average rugby player will suffer 91 injuries per 1,000 playing hours, with each injury taking 18 days to recover from.

The surgeon says that educational injury prevention programs which would encourage the proper techniques and stronger enforcement of the rules would cut these injuries.

However, he says the protective gear does prevent mouth, facial and scalp injuries and so players should continue to wear it.

"These sorts of strategies should be made available to all rugby players so that these athletes can spend more time playing on the field than recovering off of the field," he said.

This news comes after the NFL promised to toughen up on illegal tackles in American football following a spate of player brain injuries in October.

News from Serious Law, award winning brain injury law firm

Posted by Timothy Walters
 

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