Bans won’t work but caution will - Danger in sport

THE death of Portuguese fighter João Carvalho, because of injuries he sustained during a mixed martial arts fight with Charlie ‘The Hospital’ Ward at the National Stadium last Saturday night is a tragedy.

That he died in the name of sport, though in the case of mixed martial arts that definition has been challenged, deepens our instinctive sense of empathy and sorrow. That Carvalho’s death followed an all too prescient warning from a Dublin consultant neurologist about the level of medical supervision at the event, and the risk of serious injury, moves the loss on to a very different plane.

Professor Dan Healy, from Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital, said last week he was worried that a serious injury at Saturday’s event might lead to a fatality. His dire prediction has come to pass. The unfortunate Carvalho died in Beaumont Hospital adding cruel irony to cruel tragedy.