Photo by ISIPhotos.com
By DAN KARELL
In one of the more bizarre incidents of the 2013/2014 English Premier League season, Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris convinced his manager and medical team that he could stay on the pitch late in the match, despite being knocked unconscious.
FIFA’s medical chief Jiri Dvorak has weighed in on the controversy, saying that Lloris should have been taken off, citing the statistics that Lloris must have suffered a concussion. Everton forward Romelu Lukaku’s left knee collided with the head of Lloris as the Belgian raced towards a through ball in Sunday’s scoreless draw.
A United Kingdom brain injury charity, Headway, has also protested the decision to allow the French international to remain on the field. After the match, Tottenham manager Andre Villas Boas revealed that Lloris couldn’t remember the incident, another sign of a likely concussion.
Tottenham announced on Monday that after undergoing a CT Scan on Sunday evening, Lloris had been given the all-clear to return to his home.
Here are some more stories to start your week:
UNDER-FIRE MILAN COACH ALLEGRI RECEIVES BACKING FROM CEO GALLIANI
AC Milan’s fall from grace has them now in 11th place in Serie A from 11 matches, following a 2-0 defeat at home to Fiorentina that has head coach Massimiliano Allegri under fire from fans for the team’s performances.
Despite the slow start to the season with just three wins in the league, Allegri has received the backing of Milan CEO Adriano Galliani.
“There is faith in Allegri – he is not the problem,” Galliani told Gazzetta Dello Sport in Italy. “All managers depend on results, but this is not a decisive week for him. If someone keeps losing then there is no one who can survive that. This is certainly a difficult moment because we are not picking up results, but we will carry on. From experience I say that we should remain calm.”
The famed Italian club, who won Serie A as recently as in 2011, finished a disappointing third last season after a slow start and have started slowly in similar fashion again this season. Many fans are also calling for star forward Mario Balotelli to leave, after struggling to score recently.
BARCELONA TEAMMATES BACK MESSI THROUGH “SCORING DROUGHT”
Since returning to full training during the most recent international break, Lionel Messi has failed to score a league goal.
The Argentine forward recently admitted that he still wasn’t 100 percent fit after failing to score in his fourth consecutive La Liga game last Friday in Barcelona’s 1-0 victory over neighbors Espanyol. However, Messi has received the backing of many of his teammates and his coach Gerardo Martino to return to his usual goal-scoring form soon.
I see him very well (every day), he trains with a lot of desire,” Barcelona winger Pedro said to Marca. “Goals are going to come and more if you’re Leo Messi, the best player in the world. He works hard and also assists his teammates. I think he’s very calm because he knows that things will be okay.”
Messi and Barcelona take on AC Milan on Wednesday at home in UEFA Champions League action.
QUICK KICKS
Lionel Messi, Angel Di Maria, and Sergio Aguero are all members of a 23-man Argentina squad called up for two friendly matches against Ecuador and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the United States. (REPORT)
During the always on-edge Belgrade derby between hated Serbian rivals Red Star and Partizan, the Partizan fans lit a section of Red Star’s Marakana stadium on fire. Alas, Red Star won, 2-1. (REPORT)
Ahead of their match with Arsenal, Borussia Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp has praised Arsene Wenger’s style of play over Barcelona, and compared the feeling of coming out of the dressing room onto the Signal Iduna Park pitch akin to being born. (REPORT)
Reports out of Ireland state that former Sunderland and Aston Villa boss Martin O’Neill will take over the Ireland National Team on a two-year contract, and his top assistant coach appears to be former Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane. (REPORT)
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What do you think of these reports? Do you see the Premier League adopting stronger concussion protocols? Do you believe that Allegri should be sacked? Do you see Messi scoring in his next league match?
Share your thoughts below.
Add to the concussion discussion. I’ve not seen any report about this…but…during the ManU/FFC match one of the ManU players took it upon himself to ask for medical assistance b/c he was dizzy. Played the ball out of bounds and used made a jesture with his hands indicating that he was dizzy or having trouble seeing.
He was back on the field within 30 seconds. Huh?
Do you know why he was dizzy?
Loved that Klopp interview. Such an awesome person!
A subtly interesting thing about Martin O’Neill is that he actually grew up in Northern Ireland, and played for their national team in the 70s and 80s, paralleling a playing and managing career mostly in England and Scotland. But he would now be coaching the Republic of Ireland team. However he is from Catholic Derry and coached Celtic, and the violence level and politics have changed during his lifetime, so this decision also makes sense.
Jack Charlton, noted English World Cup winner, managed the Republic for ten years and led them to their first World Cup in 1990.
So those politics as it relates to this position were settled a long time ago
soccer needs to take a serious look at concussions, they are far to cavalier with it. just last weekend townsend was knocked unconscious and allowed to continue. i believe AVB said something like he wanted to keep going, of course he did he is an athlete but the medical staff needs to step in and say no. also a couple weeks back flamini was allowed back on the pitch with one and had to leave about 5-10 minutes later cause he couldn’t continue.
Yes, the statement made by FIFA’s medical chief is spot on, and they should take this much more serious. I see the consequences of blows to the head almost on a daily basis, being a health care provider, and there’s still TONS of ignorance here in the US: American football being exhibit number 1.
Football being the number one reason it is coming more and more under the microscope, albeit for the wrong reasons. It’s so hard to fathom teams wouldn’t protect their players (or assets as the owners call them) more and be cautious.
And on a side note: That same player, that didn’t want to leave the game, will sue you for long term health issues when he retires…because you didn’t protect him by making him come out of the game. Help him out now and your business interest later by pulling him.
scary to me that the concussion standard for my son’s high school is higher than the EPL.
Its the substitutes problem… they would rather have head injuries that “ruin” the game. And by ruin I mean changes the rules ever…
On the other hand, one would expect that adult professionals be given more autonomy on whether to keep playing than children.
no. they are athletes so of course they are going to want to continue. the medical staff needs to step in and say this guy cant keep going, you cant really listen to the player with head injuries.
+1
1. Any athlete at this level would lie to stay in the game. That is the biggest part of the problem. Listen to the old NFL players, it is the NFL’s fault that they didn’t stop me from hurting myself playing with a concussion after I told them I could play.
2 if he has a concussion, then by definition.he can’t make rational “adult” decisions. Even now, he would not play high school soccer for a minimum of one week, because the concussion issues are difficult/impossible to detect with CT or MRI.
It is a running joke at AHS that how can a teenagers brain return to normal function (unless that is flatline) but that seems to be the protocol because hard testing (CT/MRI) are so unreliable and the problems with being wrong are so severe.
3.
You don’t make good decisions after you have been hit hard like that. At least I didn’t. I got hit by a motorcycle once while I was out cycling. I decided to go home myself rather than call someone. I was barely aware of what was going on.
I guess when your #2 keeper has so little Prem League experience, Spurs just felt uncomfortable about throwing him into the fire. They must just want to bring him on slowly………
What? Brad Friedel has world cup experience and started like 200 or something straight matches in PL play before AVB through Lloris in last year. Get your facts straight.
Signed, the majority of SBI commenters who don’t understand sarcasm.
Had already used all their subs I believe. A field player would have had to switch into goal.
Friedel was on the line waiting to come in to the game. A field player was not going to be used in goal.
I didn’t see much uproar over Abbie Wambach’s recent revelations about her concussions.
It’s ok, Messi is a good boy. He’ll be scoring soon. He’s still better than that other guy. – Seppy
But no racism reported in Belgrade? Progress!
Pretty sure Messi scored for Barcelona in that thing called the Champions League like two weeks ago in the away leg at AC MIlan. Kind of a big deal, no?
Yep, folks just wanna be right and rarely place import on context. I agree and what a clinical trap, move and blast that was by Messi.
If Messi were American every american fan would be throwing him under the bus right now. Claiming that he is lazy and going to lose his WC spot.
Messi’s always been overrated to me. Hell, even Jonathan Bornstein shut him down 1v1.
Commenting privileges revoked
+1
I think you missed the sarcasm there.
Messi is overrated. He plays for perhaps the best team money can buy in the world, so he is surrounded by stars that meke him shine even more. Remember the last WC? Do you remember the last world cup when Argentina literally socked; where was Messi then? He is a great player, though.
That’s why we still don’t have an American superstar, and won’t anytime. We expect way too much way too early, way too consistently, and don’t have the patience for someone to not score 2 goals every game.
He is clearly still a bit injured. Seems no one can force the man to sit long enough to get healthy. Been like this for what about 9 months now?
Roy Keane? Somewhere Mick McCarthy is shaking his head.
Because all great former players are destined to be great coaches…