Senate Inquiry delivers 13 recommendations over sport concussions and repeated head trauma in contact sports

Major sporting codes, including the NRL and AFL, should have mandatory return-to-play protocols in concussion, including 21 days out of competition to allow players to properly recover.

The recommendation is among a series from the just released Senate Inquiry Report on Concussions - a six-month inquiry into concussions and repeated head trauma in contact sports.

Tabled in the Senate on Tuesday night, the inquiry outlines 13 recommendations (that can be found on page 13 of the 187 page document) including that sporting organisations should consider rule modifications to minimise concussion risk, while the government should develop a national sports injury database, with which sporting bodies should share concussion-related data.

The committee supported the government following the UK’s approach to grassroots sport in developing universal protocols that recommended players take a minimum of 21 days out of competition after sustaining a concussion.

It agreed with inquiry participants who said the financial, medical and other supports offered to players affected by concussion and repeated head trauma were inadequate.

The committee advised “fundamentally, key national sporting organisations could further enhance their commitment and their duty of care to athletes across the country, providing athletes with more support or resources to respond more effectively to life-changing challenges.

“It was clear to the committee that significant reforms and improvements are needed to ensure that individuals from all levels of sport are adequately supported, remediated and compensated in the event that they suffer from the ongoing impacts of concussion and repeated head trauma as a result of their participation in sport.”

Adding that the Federal Government should also find ways to enable independent research funding into the issue to ensure the integrity of the work, it noted “comprehensive and independent research is vital to ensure that future sports people and their families do not have to experience the anguish and suffering that current and former generations have faced.”

The inquiry was established in December last year in the wake of increasing public concern over sporting organisations’ management of player head injuries and the large and growing body of scientific evidence showing links between repeated exposure to head injury in contact sports and neurodegenerative disease.

The inquiry heard from many people who experienced long-term and ongoing effects of traumatic brain injury, including harrowing testimony from people with family members who were found to have had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the debilitating neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated head trauma.

It went on to say that is is “unsatisfactory and inequitable” that professional players were excluded from workers’ compensation schemes, the committee said, and recommended that state and territory governments explore how to include sportspeople in their schemes.

No-fault insurance arrangements were not part of the recommendations, despite the report recognising the need for players to be insured for head injury, and considerable time during hearings spent discussing the necessity of it.

Click here to view the report, including its 13 recommendations, which can be found on page 13 of the document.