The treatment of David Ospina in Napoli that resulted in the goalkeeper collapsing and having to spend time in hospital has been criticised by a leading brain charity.
Concussion in football is never taken seriously and the game still sees images of men running around with bloody bandages wrapped around their heads as some sort of sign of masculinity.
At the weekend, Ospina took a knee to the head and ended up bandaged quite heavily.
David Ospina's injury before his collapse in today's match against Udinese pic.twitter.com/rxPhWE0QZe
— Billy™ (@MonsignorBilly) March 17, 2019
It should, perhaps, then come as no surprise that he collapsed later in the game and had to be taken to hospital.
3. Collapse over half an hour later.
How they let Ospina stay in the game is beyond me. pic.twitter.com/DrH6UBRJDQ
— joerontonian (@joerontonian) March 17, 2019
Thankfully, his CAT scans showed no problems, but how little was said of the incident (when compared to a fan punching Jack Grealish, say) shows how little we care about this issue that is going to claim a player’s life at some point.
The Guardian, who ran an article quoting the charity, Headway, are the only ones of the three main papers (Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph) to cover the incident in this manner, and their article is a tiny little piece buried on page 51.
“David Ospina’s treatment highlights why we’ve called for an ‘if in doubt, sit it out’ approach to concussion,” said Headway’s chief executive, Peter McCabe. “There’s a fear it will take a catastrophic injury to a player before attitudes change.”
Ospina is now back at home after a period under observation in hospital.
https://twitter.com/D_Ospina1/status/1107737758964113411