Quote:
Originally Posted by Itse
You surely have, you just don't remember it. In the last World Cup at least one player was completely out cold for a while, and I think I recall another guy pretty clearly staggering to his feet confused. It was pretty ugly actually as he just kept playing. In hockey that guy would have easily been banned from playing that night by the team doctors. So clearly there is room for improvement in soccer.
Oh yeah, and Petec Cech rather famously broke his skull, pretty sure everyone remembers that one 
That said, I agree that they seem quite rare. More importantly, soccer has been played for a long time by a huge amount of people without that much change, and I haven't heard of soccer players having the kinds of post-career problems with concussion symptoms that you hear about in hockey. I would imagine that if this was a notable issue, it would have turned up simply because of the massive amounts of soccer being played all around the world. That for me is the biggest reason why I'm not too worried. |
I probably should have been clear, I meant from heading the ball, goalies are always at risk of occasionally getting a boot to the head, although usually when they are on the ground, and head clashes happen every now and then, but they are rare and I doubt most players get more than one or two in a career.
Short of ending soccer as a game you aren't going to stop that.
As you say old soccer players generally are at risk of becoming bad TV commentators, ultimately life has risk and we should stop trying to wrap everyone in bubble wrap.