Concussion casts a shadow over sports

The photograph published with this column, taken 30 years ago when Munster lost to Australian rugby tourists in Thomond Park, seems as if it is from a different age.

The only thing those gallant amateurs have in common with the players involved in the autumn internationals this weekend is that both sets of athletes have two arms and two legs. Compared to today’s professional behemoths those players, no matter how committed and well-prepared by the for-the-love-of-it standards of that time, seem more like robust set dancers than the tattooed wrecking balls targeting each other in this afternoon’s international games.

One of those wrecking balls, England’s Courtney Lawes, has been passed fit to face what may be the game’s greatest physical challenge — playing South Africa — despite being concussed against New Zealand as recently as last Saturday. It must be hoped for his sake, and for the sake of every other player in any sport who suffers concussion, that the protocols to assess whether a player is fit to return to competition after a head injury are as reliable — and as rigorously applied — as they need to be. If they have not been then the potential for life-defining injury is too high and no player in any sport, amateur or professional, young or old, should be allowed to expose themselves to such unwarranted risk.