By Sam Peters English professional football has been warned it faces a ‘tsunami’ of damaging legal claims that will cripple some clubs if managers continue to over-rule doctors and allow concussed players to play on. In an exclusive interview with the Mail on Sunday, the Football Association’s senior doctor Ian Beasley this week said the NFL’s massive legal settlement with former American Footballers suffering from early on-set dementia linked to head injuries — now in excess of £870million — has set a precedent other sports would be foolish to ignore. The last Premier League season saw an alarming number of incidences where managers ignored team doctors and allowed concussed players to return to play while this summer’s World Cup in Brazil also saw players with head injuries, including Uruguay’s Alvaro Pereira and Germany’s Christoph Kramer, play on.
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Football Association's senior doctor Ian Beasley said massive NFL legal settlement linked with early on-set of dementia has set a precedent
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Last season a number of Premier League managers ignored team doctors and allowed players to return to the field of play during matches
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At the Brazil World Cup, Uruguay's Alvaro Pereira and Germany's Christoph Kramer were also permitted to play on
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Beasley has warned clubs of effects of letting players go back on to the pitch
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He says financial implications of settlements could break smaller clubs
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Last week FA announced head-injury guidelines which state all players who lose consciousness or suspected of doing so must be taken off immediately
‘When you’ve got precedent of a tsunami [the @placeholder pay out] coming your way the best thing to do is to build your defence properly so you can withstand the tsunami.