Rugby league lock forward Kevin Harbridge has had more than his fair share of contact in the sport, suffering a staggering seven concussions over a two-and-a-half-year period.
The last one was a tackle he had made numerous times – but it all went horribly wrong when his head turned in the wrong position.
Harbridge was left badly concussed and stumbled to the ground, dizzy and disorientated. Looking back on that moment, all that he remembers is the fear and uncertainty. Would this be the end of his days in a football jersey, or worse, could it impact his life in a more serious way?
“I just remember being in a state of panic, I didn’t know what was going on and I felt completely disoriented. It was a pretty scary moment and so many thoughts just rushed into my mind,” Harbridge said.
Concussion symptoms slowly took over his life. But he couldn’t brush aside the thoughts of having to quit something he loved.
“I felt the full scale of the mental symptoms as you’d expect when suffering from a brain injury, “ he said.
“My mental health was not in a good place.
“I found it hard to communicate with others leading to further distress and unclarity. When would the mental torment end?”
It would eventually spell the end to his footy career.
Harbridge had to make the gruelling decision to hang up his boots up
“I had come to the realisation that my mental and physical health was above my love for the game. Wherever I laid my eyes there was news about concussions and what long and short term effects it had, this was the overall contributor to why I stepped away from the game,” he said.
Kevin is still involved with the game, now as a Sports Level 1 Trainer for his club De La Salle. He’s learning about the safety and prevention of head injuries, like the one that impacted him.
“During the trainer course, the assessment of head injuries was highly examined. The course emphasises how devastating a concussion could be for all age brackets of players. The trainers could not stress enough how important the injury management of a concussion is, they’re continuously developing further research into concussion management and how it can be applied,” he added.
Brain Injury Australia, reported that every year more than 3,000 people are hospitalised after being concussed, just from playing sport. But triple that number won’t seek medical attention. And as many as ten times that number won’t even report their concussion to teammates, coaches or family because they fear being removed from play.
Sport has come so far from back in the ‘glory days.’ Then there was no sport science, advanced recovery methods, concussion protocols and rehabilitation procedures.
The average professional athlete is continuing to get stronger, faster, bigger and more powerful. Creating bigger impacts on the players. Players can head to the gym to strengthen their chest and shoulders, but not their heads. It makes these concussions even more likely.
Leading Neurologist and Concussion Expert, Professor Christopher Levi believes these factors are leading to more concussions for our athletes
“The force of an impact is related to both the mass of the body involved in a collision and the velocity at which that collision occurs,” Prof. Levi said.
“You could argue that unless there is a series of ongoing strategies to address the risk of collisions involving the head and thereby the brain, the size and speed of participants and thereby increase mass and velocity involved in head collisions could lead to an increased severity and possibly frequency of concussion events.”
He said it was difficult to witness the devastation of seeing former athletes being diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries and diseases such as CTE. The lack of welfare and knowledge surrounding head injuries is an easy blame in this instance. Professor Levi knows these cases all too well and is continuing to research possible early prevention methods.
“Premorbid diagnosis of CTE is under investigation using PET scanning technologies,” he said.
“These are still in the research domain but are looking promising.
“In Alzheimer’s disease there are currently promising therapies that target the abnormal proteins in the brain and I expect a similar development in the future will occur with the abnormal proteins that accumulate in CTE.”
With ongoing concerns about the lack of awareness surrounding head injuries in local and lower grades of sport, Professor Levi thinks it’s a matter of understanding and diligence when it comes to the assessment of these head injuries.
“I suspect this is correct as the level of understanding, diligence in assessment and prevention will of course be higher in the professional ranks than it will be in the amateur ranks. There is certainly a need for education training and mentation of best evidence practice and policy in the lower grades and amateur domains,” he said.
There are ongoing calls from the average punter that today’s sport competitions are going “soft” when implementing these policies and rules to prevent head injuries. Professor Levi believes the major codes are heading in the right direction.
“My personal perspective is that there needs to be more done to ensure low risk tackling techniques are implemented as most concussions occur with incorrect head positioning during tackling manoeuvres,” he said.
“There is also an increasing level of penalisation of overly rough or aggressive conduct producing impact with the head, and of course an increasing level of diligence and identification of concussion and removal from play to ensure full recovery before any further exposure.”
Head Injuries are the most common injury in Australian Sport.
As for the community, the knowledge surrounding the extent of head injuries is still quite low.
Paramedicine University student James Stortenbeker has seen the measures surrounding head injuries significantly grow in his studies. He can’t stress enough how serious these must be taken.
“In severe head injuries, short term dangers involve increased intracranial pressure due to a bleed in a region of the brain,” he said.
“Depending on the severity of the bleed, it can present in different ways.
“Time is of the essence when treating traumatic brain injuries which is why it is so important for education around the topic.”
During one of his placements with NSW Ambulance, James treated a young Rugby Union player who had suffered a traumatic concussion in a local match, he thinks the lack of knowledge and education around head injuries played a role.
“Due to the lack of awareness around the dangers of head injuries at a regional and local level this could have potentially cost this young man his life, ” he said.
“It is very likely he has experienced long term disabilities as a result of the injury. One small moment of his life could have cost him and his family so much.”
Major codes are constantly getting labelled as “dramatic’ and “soft’. Mr Stortenbeker feels the opposite and and is certain that these competitions are doing the right thing.
“I think the controversy comes from passionate supporters, if they were able to come and see what the true effects of head injuries can be, I can guarantee you that their mind would change,” he said.
“I encourage the changes in both contact and non-contact sports to protect player welfare and believe it is vital across any sporting codes.”
For people like Harbridge bowing out of the game before he suffered major and or permanent health issues was a no brainer.
With a long life before him he believes giving up on those on field hero moments is worth it if it means he remains healthy.