High profile AFL player Nathan Murphy has announced he is retiring from football at age 24 after suffering too many concussions.
It’s a brave decision that should make a few people sit up and take notice. Once upon a time, it was just expected you took a few knocks and you were out of it for a while after it was all a bit of a joke.
These, days, thankfully, it’s taken a bit more seriously as the long-term issues are making themselves known.
Murphy suffered 10 concussions throughout his career and cited his priority to live a full and healthy life as his motivation to quit.
Fair enough. Sporting authorities seem to take concussion much more seriously these days but is there enough being done?
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a devastating acquired brain injury that can result after repeated concussions. There is no cure, no effective treatment and official diagnosis can only be found during an autopsy.
If we are parading our young athletes in the public arena for our entertainment, they deserve better testing, treatment and protection for this devastating disease and other brain injuries.
Millions, if not billions if you take American football into account, washes around high contact sports, but only a fraction of that is spent on research to treat and prevent these distressing injuries from happening. Time to do better.
Do you think sports are doing enough to protect their players
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