Before the start of the current season, the regulations on treatment of suspected head injuries was changed to read:
“Where a player has a suspected head injury and the referee stops the game, the official will immediately signal for a doctor or physio to enter the pitch in order to promote player welfare. The player will need to leave the pitch for further assessment and remain on the touchline for a minimum 30 seconds after play has restarted.”
At a pre-season briefing, Howard Webb, Chief Refereeing Officer for Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), stated that the rules were aimed both at improving player welfare and preventing gamesmanship.
“What we’ve said this year is that if a player presents the signs to the referee of having a potential head injury, usually that will be because the player goes down holding their head,” Webb said.
“If the referee decides to stop the game mainly because of concerns around it being a head injury or potential head, then we’ll get the doctor or a physio on straight away.
“We want to make sure the player gets assistance if they’ve got a genuine head injury, but also there was some feeling as well that too many times, players were going down holding their heads. The game was then being interrupted as a result of that and the player was absolutely fine.
“That’s to protect a player safety, but also hopefully it’ll deter people from potentially gaming it a little bit by getting the game stopped.”