Injury Prevention - Treatment and Concussion Protocol

Head Injury Guidelines

When a player or players collide heads whether with each other or with an object, such as a goal post, play should be stopped immediately. The safety of the player or players involved is of prime concern. There is no higher priority.

Assessment

Perform a primary survey that the player’s airway, cervical spine, breathing and circulation are secure.

• Quickly assess the player’s mental state using AVPU Scale:
  o A- Alert , V-Responds to Voice, P- Responds to Pain, U-Unresponsive
• Assess pupil size, equality and reactivity

Protocol of Immediate Assessment

• If player I unresponsive or only responding non-purposefully to pain, then call 911 as player needs to be sent to the hospital.
• If player has any focal neurological signs, then call 911 as player needs to be sent to hospital.
• If none, proceed to secondary assessment

Secondary Assessment

Perform secondary assessment looking specifically at:

• Deformity, tenderness, or muscle spasm in neck or cervical spine
• Head-scalp bruising, facial fractures, cuts, swelling, tenderness, bruising behind ears, bleeding from ear drum, dental trauma, or soft tissue injuries in mouth, swelling or bleeding from nose, reflexes on motor skills, or any other injuries observed.

Gain as much information as possible regarding incident, specifically determine:

• Time, mechanism and circumstances of injury…. basically what happened
• Loss of consciousness
• Nausea and vomiting ( in this case , how many times player vomited )
• Other injuries sustained 

Head Injury Protocol

All head injuries should be treated as a potential concussion and assessment should take place as soon as possible.  Players should be taken off the practice or game field and should not return until assessed by a medical professional.

For further information on Concussions and Concussion Policy, please refer to the following:

• Soccer Canada as produced a Concussion Policy
• Ontario Soccer has adopted the Concussion Policy from Soccer Canada

Ontario Soccer has also posted some additional information on Concussions at the following resources:

• https://www.ontariosoccer.net/concussion-resources
• https://www.ontariosoccer.net/what-is-a-concussion
• https://www.ontariosoccer.net/concussion-management-strategies
• https://www.ontariosoccer.net/page/show/3000386-concussion-news