Pitchside blood test to reveal concussed players

Researchers have made a breakthrough in their quest to develop a pitchside blood test to check for concussion in athletes in impact sports.

They hope that within a few years they could have a simple finger-prick test in a device similar to those used by many diabetes patients to check their blood sugar levels — with results available within minutes.

The research, based at Trinity College Dublin and backed by Leinster Rugby, is part of a major initiative aimed at producing a suite of tests that can definitely establish whether a player is concussed, to what degree, and how soon it is safe to let them back into the game.