Chelsea: Five subs, revised concussion protocols, and more care

Chelsea is just one of many that could do with the Football Association, UEFA, and FIFA showing a greater duty of care to the players health.

Raul Jimenez nearly died two weeks ago and no one with a voice really cares. Sure, you’ll see articles on Sky Sports and others about how he fractured his skull and needed surgery, but what you won’t see are calls to rethink how headers are done. You won’t see a thing about concussion protocols because frankly, they don’t exist. Former Blue David Luiz was on the other end of that collision and he played the remainder of the half. No one has batted an eye that he came out at half time or hasn’t played since. If that doesn’t scream concussion, which again he was allowed to continue to play, few other things will.

It all seems so similar to the Ryan Mason incident with Gary Cahill a few years ago. Mason also fractured his skull and needed surgery. He has since had to retire from playing as a result and he is one of the few voices that seems to care. Cahill, like Luiz, continued in that match and it was written on this very website about how utterly stupid that was. That was three years ago.

We could go even further back, to Petr Cech. That resulted in changes to medical protocol amongst other things, but the whole idea of a concussion substitute is a taboo subject. It has been talked about for ages now, always right after incidents like this, and then it just goes away again. There is always a fear of some imaginary competitive advantage, time wasting or a free sub through feigning, that overrides the dangers of an actual event.

It is not much of a leap to get from opposition to a concussion sub to opposition to five substitutes. Opponents to the change seem to think it will give the bigger teams an advantage, though that isn’t being proven true in any other league where they are in use. It would instead give even shallower teams a chance to rest their stars, ensuring they might actually finish this packed season. Injuries are up 23 percent, but doing things the way they have always been done is winning out over doing things that work better.

But it isn’t just subs or concussion protocol, it is the sheer amount of matches players are expected to play in a short time span. With Covid there was always a hint of “the show must go on” and that has been taken to the extreme. Not only was last season’s end packed in, but now this current season is packed in to compensate. Chelsea, for example, is playing a game roughly every three to four days. Add in international breaks where UEFA had the bright idea to add a third game on top of everything. Then consider that England still doesn’t really have a winter break. Finally, add the Euros at the end of the summer. Some players will be walking corpses by the start of next season.

There is a certain duty of care that clubs, the FA, UEFA, and FIFA must all consider about players. It is far too easy to get caught in the trap of “oh they are professionals so they should be able to do it”. That is, frankly, ridiculous. The human body, even at its peak, can only go so far. Treating players like commodities, marketing tools, entertaining chunks of meat is the current norm. It shouldn’t be. Concussion protocols, five subs, less fixture congestion; it is all part of the same whole. Treating players like people. Treating them like they are more important than the show going on.

Raul Jimenez nearly died and no one is really talking about it. That is just one issue of many but eventually the powers that be will have to address it. They’ll need to while they still can. Concussion protocols actually being followed and concussions subs shouldn’t become a thing only when a family has to be offered condolences for their loss. If the show is to go on, maybe these powers that be need to show that they care about the players as people, not as profits.

There has to be pressure from somewhere however. These institutions will not change on their own. The media has to actually care about these events and circumstances beyond reporting new bits of information. Perhaps most of all, fans need to be loud. One drop of water does not a river make. But get enough drops of water, you’ll get a river that can start eroding away and the bad to get to the good.