SPORTS WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6 , 2013 Brain damage concussion fears seep into rugby and soccer LONDON: Rugby and soccer players who suffer mul- keeper Hugo Lloris to play on even after he was ness and blurred or confused vision - but some, brain tissue, the blood vessels are more fibrous and tiple knocks to the head during their careers are at knocked out in a collision with a striker. many, or all of these symptoms may not appear strong - a bit like wires. When the head is hit, espe- added risk of brain damage that could lead to Luke Griggs, a spokesman for the brain injury straight away, he said, and often take hours or even cially in a rotational movement, one of two things dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases, charity Headway, said the decision displayed an days to appear. Which makes a five-minute pitch can happen — either the blood vessel can snap, brain scientists are warning. “irresponsible and cavalier attitude to a player’s side assessment, be it in rugby, soccer, NFL or else- leading to a haemorrhage, or there can be micro- Just as some American football players and box- health”. By playing on, he said, Lloris may have where, a fairly unhelpful approach if an accurate scopic tearing of the tissue around the vessel. ers have been found to have long-term cognitive caused greater damage to his brain. diagnosis is to be made. It is this microscopic damage, often not picked deficits after suffering repeated head blows or con- “He should have been removed from the game “The rule should be ‘if in doubt, sit them out’,” said up by doctors at pitch side, or even noticed by the cussions during play, so soccer and rugby players immediately and taken to hospital for thorough Stewart.” And if you have enough suspicion that a players, that is the most likely cause of long-term must be made aware of the same dangers. tests and observation.” Brain scientists and medical player is concussed to want to conduct a pitch side brain harm. “What happens is that when you have a big experts agree. assessment, then there’s enough doubt there A study published last month found “profound impact, your skull twists one way but your brain At an international conference on concussion in already to take them out of play.” abnormalities” in brain activity scans of former NFL stays in the same place,” said John Hardy, chair of sport last year, specialist doctors working in sport Stewart and Hardy both called for more educa- players. Such findings are not just in men. A small Molecular Biology of Neurological Disease at drafted a consensus saying that no player, regard- tion and awareness of the symptoms of concussion, study of female soccer players published earlier this University College London’s Institute of Neurology. less of the sport, should return to the field of play on its risks, and the possible long-term damage it can year found evidence of “mild traumatic brain injury These injuries, he said, common among boxers, the day of a concussive injury. cause. While relatively few studies have been con- of the frontal lobes” caused by repeatedly bouncing American National Football League (NFL) and ice Yet the problem there, says Willie Stewart, a con- ducted in rugby players, American footballers and a football off the head. hockey players, as well as soccer and rugby players, sultant neuropathologist at Glasgow’s Southern boxers have been presented with new and disturb- Hardy, whose main concern is about boxing - can cause damage to the brain similar to abnormali- General Hospital who is due to speak at a profes- ing evidence in recent years, partly thanks to which he describes as little more than “watching ties found in people with Alzheimer’s disease and sional rugby concussion forum in London this week, advances in modern neuroscience which mean sci- people inflict brain damage on each other” - says he other forms of dementia. is that diagnosing concussion is a far lengthier and entists know more than ever about chronic brain was horrified to see women’s boxing at the London “We need to minimise the risks by coming down more complex process than many people assume. damage. It has various names - including punch 2012 Olympic Games. very heavily on tackles and behaviours that are likely “People believe you have to be knocked uncon- drunk syndrome, dementia pugilistica and chronic Stewart says the key issue is the brain, not the to cause rotational injury to the brain,” Hardy said. scious to have concussion, but there are many other traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) but comes down to sport, the person, their age or their gender. “A brain Such concerns have echoed across sport in symptoms of concussion too,” Stewart told Reuters the same thing: The long-term trauma that can injury is a brain injury is a brain injury,” he said. recent days, particularly after English soccer club in an interview. result from frequent knocks to the head. “When it gets injured, the brain has no idea what Tottenham Hotspur controversially allowed goal- These include headaches, nausea, lack of aware- Hardy explains that within the soft mass of the sport it’s playing or where it is.” — Reuters Russia sending 2014 Sochi Olympics torch on space walk BAIKONUR: For the first time in history, the Olympic flame will be taken on a spacewalk. The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics torch will be sent to the International Space Station on board a Russian spacecraft this week and astronauts will then carry it outside the station. Here’s a look at the Sochi torch. THE SPACE CHARIOT The torch will travel into Earth’s orbit with the next space station crew, who blast off early Thursday from the Russian-operated Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Russia’s Mikhail Tyurin, NASA’s Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata of Japan are heading to the space station on a Russian Soyuz rocket that has been emblazoned with the emblem of the Sochi Winter SYKTYVKAR: A handout picture taken during the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic torch relay Games. and released by the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Organizing Committee shows torchbear- ers, Maria Iovleva (left) a Russian biathlete and cross-country skier representing Russia at FLAMES IN SPACE the 2010 Winter Paralympics, and Ivan Volzhanin (right) ‘kissing’ with their torches to For safety reasons, the torch will not burn when it’s pass the Olympic flame. — AFP onboard the space outpost. Lighting it would consume precious oxygen and pose a threat to the crew. The Russia struggles to keep crew will carry the unlit torch around the station’s Olympic torch burning numerous modules before taking it out on a spacewalk. A TORCH FIRST BAIKONUR: The Soyuz-FG launch vehicle with Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft of the The Olympic torch has flown into space before - in International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 39 aboard is transported to a launch pad in MOSCOW: The Olympic torch has been to the ly. A video shot in Vologda, north of Moscow, 1996 aboard the US space shuttle Atlantis for the North Pole and travelled thousands of kilome- shows the flame expanding to cover the entire the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz TMA-11M with an Atlanta Summer Olympics - but it has never yet been international crew with an unlit torch of Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic aboard is scheduled tres (miles) on the relay that will end at the Sochi upper part of the torch while being held by a taken outside a spacecraft. Winter Games in Russia in February. The prob- man dressed in the blue robe of Grandfather to blast off to the ISS from Baikonur on Nov 7. The torch is scheduled to return back to Earth on Nov 11. — AFP lem is, the flame keeps going out. Frost, Russia’s version of Santa Claus. HANGING IN THE COSMOS President Vladimir Putin aims to make the Asked for comment, torch relay spokesman Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Games a showcase of Russia’s modern face to Roman Osin said that the number of times the Ryazanskiy, who are part of the space station’s current the world 23 years after the fall of the Soviet torch had failed was within the normal range of crew, will take the torch into open space Saturday when Union. But preparations have been dogged by error and that there had been similar incidents they venture outside the station. Kotov says they are Ice Queen Yuna returns delays, cost overruns and criticism over issues during the relays before the London and Beijing planning to take the video and photos of the torch, ranging from Russia’s treatment of gays, a ban Olympics. He did not say how many times it had hopefully when the space station flies over Russia and with Golden Spin event on most protests in Sochi and the treatment of gone out. The torches were designed to with- the southern resort of Sochi can be seen in the back- migrant workers on construction sites. stand Russia’s extreme weather conditions, ground. On top of that, the longest torch relay in including high winds and temperatures that can SEOUL: Olympic figure skating champi- short programme “Send in the Clowns” on Kim Yuna will make her return to and free skating programme “Adios Olympic history has been interrupted repeated- range from -40 C (-40 F) to 40 C (104 F). FALLING BACK TO EARTH competition at the Golden Spin event in Nonino” for the first time in Zagreb, the ly since Putin launched it by hoisting the torch “We did not have any experience in doing The torch will stay in space for five days until the Zagreb next month after her prepara- release said.