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Chief rugby medic calls for potential rule change to prevent concussion

  • Sep 21, 2015
  • EmmaArnold

A BBC Panorama documentary, Rugby and the Brain: Tackling the Truth, which airs tonight, shows World Rugby's chief medical officer stating how rules may have to change in order to reduce concussion.

The number of reported concussions in rugby have doubled in five years and, on average, one player at every Six Nations match suffered a brain injury.

We previously wrote how a professional rugby player was forced to retire after multiple blows to the head (concussion) resulted in him developing epilepsy.

The programme, which will be available to watch here, shows the medical officer reviewing video footage from 900 concussions in an attempt to identify why the injuries occur.

This analysis will act as evidence to help any possible changes to the law.

The main focus at the moment is to focus on the tackle with one option to suggest players tackle lower on the body of their opponent.

The documentary also shows theories from scientists stating repeated head knocks may be linked to a type of dementia after research of American football players.

Hugh Potter, Partner at PotterReesDolan, said:

The consideration of this difficult issue (highlighted by my colleague Richard Edwards last week) by the Chief Medical Officer is most welcome.

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