Should youth soccer players and other young athletes playing contact sports be limited to a “three concussions and you’re out (for good)” policy? One Australian expert thinks so.
Dr. Jeffery Rosenfeld, the director of neurosurgery at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, recently appeared on an Australian news program about the dangers of concussions for athletes, particularly in their younger years. Rosenfeld suggested that once an athlete endures “three significant concussions,” he’d be “a bit wary of that player” ever returning to the field for contact sports.
“They can still play sport but perhaps not the rough and tumble and risk associated with the tackling in a contact sport like [soccer],” he said.
As we’ve covered extensively here on Schooled in Sports, there’s reason to be extra careful with younger athletes when it comes to head injuries. A study published earlier this year in the journal