The clip has since been taken down
Troy Deeney has received criticism for comments he made regarding player concussions after David Luiz and Raul Jimenez’s collision saw the Wolves striker taken to hospital with a fractured skull.
The controversy surrounds the protocol around head injuries, after David Luiz was allowed to continue playing following the incident.
The Brazilian was bandaged up and sent back on before being replaced at half-time, but there is growing support from fans and pundits to implement more cautious procedures in concussion protocol.
Deeney, however, suggested that would be taking too much agency away from players.
“As a player you know when something is not right,” Deeney said on talkSPORT radio.
“So what I would say is, from watching David Luiz for the next 20 odd minutes afterwards, he never looked shaky on his feet.
“His legs weren’t gone from underneath him, so they followed all the protocols in terms of he’s ticked every box.
“Then afterwards you don’t see anything other than blood to suggest he’s in a bad way.”
He added: “How many things have already been taken away from players? You are already told how much you can run, how much you can’t by sport scientists.
“At some point there has to be an element of trust between player and doctor. You do have all the protocols in place.
“At the start of the season you will come in and they will do – as well as testing your heart and all these different things you do – concussion tests, which is obviously a variation of questions, which will be repeated back.
“Some are very simple, which you should normally pass and get five out of five in.
“They will do those little tests on there, something simple like ‘Who are we playing today?’, ‘What’s the score?’, ‘What day is it?’.
“Things like that, which you should know instantaneously.
“And because if you’re obviously concussed at all that will blur your memory and you might get it wrong, and that’s where they will go ‘All right there are certain things we need to start checking now’.”
But Twitter users have voiced their concerns over Deeney’s opinions, calling them dangerous and naive.
One user responded to the now deleted tweet, saying “this is very dangerous talk.”
Another twitter user called his comments “outdated guff.”
“Someone should tell Deeney that the whole point of the concussion protocols is because players ‘can’t’ be trusted to know…” another twitter user wrote.
https://twitter.com/Dave_Tyrer81/status/1333339972645101570
It is worth noting that concussion symptoms do not always display immediately. It can sometimes take between 24 and 48 hours for someone to show signs of concussion.
