EPL Everton Manager Roberto Martinez "has backed calls to stop managers making decisions on players with concussion," according to the BBC. Martinez said, "If there is a strong view from the medical side that a concussed player should come off we should look into it and make a rule. I don't think it should be a manager's decision whether you take a player off or not." FIFPro medical advisor Vincent Gouttebarge said that his organization "condemns that the health and safety of players are left to coaches, trainers or even to players themselves" (BBC, 11/7).
RUGBY: In Sydney, Bret Harris reported the Int'l Rugby Board's annual Medical Commission Conference "will take place in Dublin in just over a week's time, with experts considering key areas of player welfare, including concussion strategy." Robert Cantu, a renowned neurosurgeon and sports concussion expert, "has been critical of the IRB's stance on some concussion-related issues." Cantu rejected the IRB's assertion that there was "no scientific link" between concussion and CTE. He said, "That's head-in-the-sand stuff if you believe that" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 11/8).
