ClapLast Sunday, fans witnessed one of the scariest injuries in years as Raul Jimenez and David Luiz clashed heads early on in the Arsenal vs Wolves game. The thud when Luiz accidentally bundled into Jimenez was sickening, and it left many wondering just how seriously both men were injured.
David Luiz was able to get back to his feet relatively quickly but Jimenez was quite clearly knocked out cold, and after some very nervous moments as he worked on by medical professionals, he was transported to a local hospital.
It does seem as if he’s going to make a solid recovery, but as of this writing, there has been no confirmation as to just how long that process is going to take – and if we’ll even get the chance to see him play in a professional setting again.
There are so very many ifs and buts in the air right now, but bizarrely, the main focus has shifted over the last few days, and perhaps rightly so.
That’s because the aforementioned Luiz was allowed to continue on in the game after being bandaged up, with blood visually coming through the bandage in question.
There was supposedly some kind of judgement call made with respect to the concussion protocol, but it doesn’t take a genius to see that there wasn’t a whole lot of efficiency on display within that process.
Some fans thought that it’d be funny to compare Luiz’s bloody head to the Gunners’ away kit, or perhaps to laugh about the fact that Arsenal wound up losing the game 2-1. In the end, though, we all know these things don’t really matter.
What matters is that the health and safety of the Brazilian defender was put at risk – and for what? Because Arsenal didn’t want to make a substitution so early on in the game?
We’ve all heard a lot about the heading debate that is raging in the world of football with many dementia cases being linked back to professional footballers. This isn’t exactly the same thing, but some fans seem to take a similar “don’t play the game if you don’t want to get hurt” approach, and we just can’t understand the logic behind that.
Football is more than just a game for millions of people around the globe but that doesn’t mean it’s more important than life itself. If Luiz had sustained another nasty injury to his head after being exposed in the way he was, there could’ve been some really serious consequences.
Everyone involved was fortunate that this didn’t happen but one day, it just might – and that’s why there need to be some adjustments made to the current concussion “protocol”.
This is true for the English Premier League but it also goes for top divisions across football, both in Europe and all other continents. Luiz was lucky, and in a way so was Raul, but do we really have to wait for another serious injury to occur before changes are introduced? We really hope not.
