By Peter Ryan
More AFL players are hiding concussion symptoms for fear of missing games, according to a survey by their union, and the British Journal of Sports Medicine has retracted six more articles by the league’s prominent former adviser on concussion Associate Professor Paul McCrory.
The survey results contained in the latest AFL Players’ Association Insights and Impact report, released on Tuesday, revealed that more than one in 10 of the 179 male players who experienced a potential concussion in 2023 did not report their symptoms, despite growing awareness of the issue.
Collingwood defender Nathan Murphy consoles Angus Brayshaw as he leaves the ground after being concussed in last year’s qualifying final. Both players are now retired due to medical advice following a series of concussionsCredit: Paul Rovere
The AFLPA survey found that “around 12 per cent of the 179 AFL players who experienced a diagnosed or potential SRC [sport-related concussion] in the past 12 months did not report their symptoms – equating to 21 players. For AFLW, there were 114 players who experienced a diagnosed or potential SRC in the past 12 months, and of those, 11 players (10 per cent) did not report their symptoms.”
The reasons players provided were a fear of missing games that might otherwise fulfil or trigger incentive clauses in their contract or the potential to miss out on team selection.
The AFL has had three listed players medically retired due to concussion so far this season, and concussion advocate Peter Jess claims 50 players have retired due to concussion in the past eight seasons.
The Western Bulldogs’ Aiden O’Driscoll was the latest player medically retired this season after Collingwood’s Nathan Murphy and Melbourne’s Angus Brayshaw. O’Driscoll was drafted in November and never got to play a game after copping a serious knock to the head during match simulation at pre-season training in January. He was admitted to hospital after the incident.
Aiden O’Driscoll was medically retired before he had the chance to play an AFL game.Credit: Getty Images
On Saturday, the AFL cleared Geelong of any wrongdoing after star forward Jeremy Cameron landed heavily on his head in the final quarter of the match against Port Adelaide. The Cats’ doctor did the head injury assessment on the ground rather than remove Cameron from the field, and the AFL Review Centre did not deem the incident worthy of the player being taken from the field.
Cameron was cleared of concussion on the night but reported symptoms the following day and entered the concussion protocols. There is no suggestion Cameron chose not to report symptoms to the doctor on the night.
Meanwhile, a list of the latest retracted articles published between 2005 and 2007 appeared online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine on May 10 and included four “warm-up” articles, a book review and a letter.
Associate Professor McCrory agreed to the decision to retract them, which was made following an investigation by the journal and its content integrity team.
McCrory was the journal’s editor-in-chief from 2001 to 2008. An investigation in 2021-22 found that some of his work was the subject of publication misconduct and 10 articles were retracted.
Previous allegations of plagiarism against McCrory led to the AFL commissioning an independent report into his activity and other issues connected with work and sports-related concussion, which was handed down in October 2022. The AFL report stated that “the instances of plagiarism that we have identified, which are detailed in this report, are limited and, in our view, they do not affect or taint the work that Associate Professor McCrory has undertaken for the AFL or the substantive findings in the works authored or co-authored by Associate Professor McCrory.”
As a result of the report, the AFL apologised to past players who were involved in a project that promised to examine the long-term effect of concussion through research McCrory was involved in co-ordinating.
The investigation found that his academic reputation had an “embarrassing blemish”, but that it did not taint his work. The panel also recommended the AFL take a more formal approach to managing concussion and the review was provided to the coroner in his investigation into the death of former Richmond midfielder Shane Tuck.
The Age contacted the British Journal of Sports Medicine and Associate Professor McCrory for comment.
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