Brain injury charity Headway have criticised the handling of David Luiz's head injury yesterday, following an incident which left Wolves striker Raul Jiminez with a fractured skull.
Luiz and Jiminez clashed heads during the first half of the game, with the Wolves man stretchered off the pitch before being taken to hospital.
Arsenal defender Luiz was allowed to continue having passed a pitchside concussion test and getting his wound bandaged up, but was substituted at half time by manager Mikel Arteta.
Headway deputy chief executive Luke Griggs says this latest incident has highlighted the need for football to adopt temporary concussion substitutes, which would have allowed a more thorough examination of Luiz to be carried out.
"Too often in football we see players returning to the pitch having undergone a concussion assessment only to be withdrawn a few minutes later when it is clear that they are not fit to continue.
"That is the very reason why we urgently need temporary concussion substitutes in football. You simply cannot take a risk with head injuries. One further blow to the head when concussed could have serious consequences," he says.
Griggs adds that if temporary concussion substitutes were put in place, it would take pressure away from medical staff who are currently being forced to assess players in a short time-frame.
"The question that has to be asked is, had the concussion substitutes rule been in place, would Luiz have been allowed to return to the field of play? Would that extra time in the treatment room have led to a different decision being made?
"The concussion protocol clearly states that ‘…anyone with a suspected concussion must be immediately removed from play’, while the sport continues to promote an ‘if in doubt, sit it out’ approach to head injuries.
"Time and time again we are seeing this rhetoric not being borne out by actions on the pitch. Something is not right. This cannot be allowed to continue. How many warnings does football need?"
