Calls for royal commission into sports-related head knocks

A leading expert wants a royal commission into sports-related head knocks following allegations some researchers minimised the seriousness of injuries.

AFL’s former longstanding concussion adviser Dr Paul McCrory is facing accusations of several examples of plagiarism.

A leading expert has called for a royal commission into the treatment of sports-related concussions in Australia amid new revelations against one of the AFL’s former longstanding advisers Dr Paul McCrory.

Dr Chris Nowinski, co-founder and executive director of the Concussion Legacy Foundation in Boston, said Dr McCrory should be stopped from releasing further research papers after recent plagiarism allegations and his alleged involvement in downplaying brain injuries in AFL players.

It comes after a recently published study on concussions by the University of Newcastle emerged, which features Dr McCrory as a co-author.

The study, which was published in the Frontiers in Neurology Journal in April, received funding from the NFL, Australian-American Fulbright Commission and other entities.

Dr Nowinski said the group of authors had “consistently downplayed” the seriousness of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and related abnormalities being found in athletes around the world.

Chris Nowinski is calling for a royal commission into the treatment of sports-related concussions in Australia.

“The consistent finding of very large cavums in CSPs (cavum of septum pellucidum) in American football players and other athletes who have CTE is a very concerning finding and helps inform both clinical deficits and potentially future diagnostic criteria,” he said.

“With the revelations of plagiarism and other concerning acts, we have to be very concerned about anything McCrory has touched.”

Dr Steve Haake, a professor of Sports Engineering at Sheffield Hallam University, whose article was plagiarised by Dr McCrory, said he also shared Dr Nowinski’s concerns.

“How could you include him in a paper and expect people to trust what you’re saying?” he said.

Dr Nowinski added that he had serious concerns over Dr McCrory’s conflicts of interest, saying they were “unprecedented” in this area of study.

“The power he has carried in minimising CTE research is something I’ll never forget,” he said.

“Basically, if the NFL is giving you money to study the long-term effects it means that you’re already on record to minimise CTE and they want to give you a platform to continue to do it.”

It comes after the Florey Institute associate professor faces accusations of several examples of plagiarism, where he is said to have copied large swathes of research, some of it apparently verbatim, in papers and journals between 2002 and 2015.

Dr McCrory, who was also on the AFL’s scientific committee, allegedly treated up to five players for concussion since 2018 despite an agreed Australian medical ban.

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) is investigating Dr McCrory on behalf of the Medical Board of Australia.

His honorary appointment at the University of Melbourne has also been temporarily suspended while a review, which is in its initial stages, takes place.

Dr Nowinski said a royal commission was urgently needed into sports-related head knocks in Australia.

“From a public health perspective it’s very important for the government to be involved with this,” he said.

“The burden of CTE will be on the entire society as a whole, not just borne by the players. It’s borne by their families, the medical system.”

“This is truly a life or death issue. The idea that there are still people in Australia aggressively questioning the obvious causal link between head impacts and CTE is mind boggling.”

Dr McCrory was one of the AFL’s key concussion advisers.

Neuroscientist and concussion researcher Dr Alan Pearce said he also supported a royal commission into the treatment of sports-related concussions.

“This is an injury that we see happen so often, week in, week out, not just at the AFL level but at all levels of sport ... we need to understand the depth and width of this issue nationally,” he said.

Dr Nowinksi said he was gravely concerned for the wellbeing of AFL players and other athletes who had been previously treated by McCrory.

“I feel for all the players who were treated by him and look back at those years they suffered without proper rehabilitation.

“They have lost years of their lives. It’s hard to put into words how serious this is.”

University of Newcastle Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Kelly said: “We are not aware that any of the concerns related to collaborative research undertaken with University of Newcastle affiliated academics.”

A state government spokesman said: “We support evidence-based treatment of concussion and would support a national approach into how best to treat them.”

The Herald Sun contacted Dr McCrory and the NFL for comment.

Originally published as Calls for royal commission into sports-related head knocks