Most Soccer Concussions Are Caused by Rough Contact Play, Not Ball Heading: Study

A US high school study reveals that most head-related concussions acquired by playing soccer is caused by rough contact play with other players rather than using their heads to hit the ball.

The nine-year study on high school soccer published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics states that more than half of head-related concussions are caused by colliding with other players. Collisions that result in concussions include head-to-head contact, and elbow and shoulders to the head. This is in contrast to head injuries acquired through ball heading, which is only observed in 1 in 4 concussions.

For the study, researchers analyzed data of sports-injury statistics from 2005-2014 from 100 schools involving teenagers younger than 14 who participate in high school soccer.

Oregon Live reported that in over a thousand concussions that happened to both boys and girls, the girls suffered more concussions from heading, while boys suffered more from player contact. Concussions during gameplay were caused by tending goal posts, chasing balls, defending and players crashing with each other during the play.

Additionally, the rates of concussion among girls increased during the years the researchers conducted the study.

Medical News Today explained that concussions can cause physical, cognitive and emotional symptoms such as nausea, confusion, vomiting, depression, moodiness, disturbed sleep and amnesia. The researchers in the article also said that tests carried out among athletes revealed that concussions may cause abnormal brain wave activity even years after the incident.   

According to Chicago Tribune's report, there are calls to remove heading in players of youth soccer as repeated head concussions and brain trauma may have long-term effects. 

"If we just enforce those kinds of rules to eliminate or at least reduce athlete-to-athlete impacts, that would do more to reduce concussions than just banning heading alone," said lead researcher Dawn Comstock, who is also a public health researcher from the University of Colorado, via CBC.

However, a traumatic brain injury expert who is not involved in the study argued that the current rules may prove difficult to prevent concussions.

"When two players go up for a head ball, they're both following the rules," said Dr. Jeffrey Bazarian, an emergency physician and associate professor of Emergency Medicine, Neurology, and Neurosurgery at the Center for Neural Development and Disease, University of Rochester Medical Center.

In Chicago Tribune's report, Chris Nowinski of Sports Legacy Institute said that repeated head concussions linked to a degenerative brain disease suffered by football players have recently been seen in the autopsies of professional soccer players. Nowinski implored that it is essential to find ways to make soccer games safer for players.