Home   Sport   Article

Inverness Caledonian Thistle manager John Robertson is in favour of trialling concussion substitutes in this season’s Scottish Cup


By Andrew Henderson

Easier access to your trusted, local news. Subscribe to a digital package and support local news publishing.



Click here to sign up to our free newsletters!

Caley Thistle manager John Robertson is in favour of trialling concussion substitutes in this season’s Scottish Cup, but is staying cautious until he sees exactly how it will be implemented.

Picture - Ken Macpherson, Inverness. Inverness CT(2) v Dundee(2). 12.12.20. ICT manager John Robertson.
Picture - Ken Macpherson, Inverness. Inverness CT(2) v Dundee(2). 12.12.20. ICT manager John Robertson.

Head injuries are a hot topic in football after studies linking retired players with dementia later in life were published this last year. Players have also suffered serious injuries, such as Wolves forward Raul Jimenez, who recently fractured his skull.

Robertson himself has spoken in the past about fears that a similar illness may be in his future.

The Scottish FA confirmed two weeks ago that extra substitutions to replace players who suffer head injuries would be trialled in the 2020/21 Scottish Cup, with Caley Thistle set to enter the competition in the second round on Saturday, January 9.

While the issue is one that is close to Robertson’s heart, he still has questions about how the new rule will be put into effect.

“It is a sensible way forward, don’t get me wrong,” Robertson insisted.

“It is the hot topic in the game right now.

“I’m worried about dementia as I get older because I was knocked out six or seven times in my career and played the next week.

“It is something I do worry about, later in life, and anything that can help in that respect is welcome.

“They have concussion substitutes in rugby, but I think the biggest problem we’re going to have is, who makes the decision?

“A player might think he feels okay and looks okay, and may pass the test, but may not be all right.

“It could be the opposite – he is fine to come back on but a doctor doesn’t want to take the risk, so it puts a lot of pressure on the doctors.”

Although similar rules surrounding head and blood injuries are in place in rugby union, they have been abused in the past.

English outfit Harlequins were the subject of a scandal in 2009 over their use of blood injury substitutes, focusing largely on their Heineken Cup quarter final.

They had given players fake blood capsules to feign injuries during games, and allow them to make substitutions across several different weeks.

While not exactly the same, the idea that teams could attempt to exploit the new rules to gain an advantage seems to be one of the main reservations in Robertson’s mind.

“You hope it isn’t open to conjecture in the fact that some teams may get one of their players to go down,” he suggested.

“That’s a cynical way to look at it, but, once you open up the possibility, the devil is in the detail – who is going to make the decision? Is it the club doctor on site, or your own doctor? That leaves lots of avenues open.

“Yes, it is a good idea, but I just think we have to look a little bit more at the detail as to how we’re going to decide if a player has concussion or not.

“You’re not going to have independent doctors, neutral doctors at games. I think it is a good decision, a right decision, but how they’re actually going to implement it may be slightly harder.

“Thankfully, it is not something we have a great deal of in football. We don’t tend to have many concussion injuries over the year, it is a very low percentage of the injuries we get.

“But anything that can help players’ health and wellbeing is something we, as a club, would actively support.”


Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.



This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies - Learn More