8 Nov 2013

Medic says concussed rugby players being put at risk

4:19 pm on 8 November 2013

A former International Rugby Board medical advisor says rugby players with brain damage are regularly being sent back onto the field because the sport's governing bodies are not taking concussion seriously enough.

Barry O'Driscoll, speaking on the sidelines of an English Rugby Union conference on concussion, says he's in no doubt that brain-damaged players were being sent back into a dangerous environment, and he resigned from the IRB last year in protest at the board's attitude to concussion.

But the IRB's chief medical officer Martin Raftery defended the Board's position, saying the recent introduction of the Pitchside Suspected Concussion Assessment, essentially a five-minute test, showed a commitment to player welfare.