Newcastle United defender Fabian Schar has opened up on the head injury he sustained while on international duty with Switzerland on Saturday.
The £40,000-a-week defender [Spotrac] was knocked unconscious for four minutes during his side’s win over Georgia in Euro 2020 qualifying, but was incredibly allowed to complete the full 90.
Speaking to Swiss newspaper Blick, as quoted in the Chronicle (8.02), Schar said: “It looks awful, I can’t remember anything.
“I was out for a few seconds. My skull is still humming and I’ve got a neck-ache and a bruise on my forehead.
“But it was worth it.”
OPINION
It’s fairly shocking that Schar was allowed to play on after such a terrible clash of heads. If he had just been left on the floor that would have been bad enough, but for him to be fully unconscious for four minutes and then told by the medical professionals in charge of his wellbeing that he is okay to carry on, it’s nothing short of disgraceful. As it is, it would appear that Schar had a lucky escape and is completely fine, but things could have been a whole lot worse, and the nature of a hea din jury like that means that you can’t always tell straight away. In those situations caution is always the best course of action to take and you would hope that FIFA intervene and have a word with the Swiss to prevent anything like this happening again. We really need to be moving away from the dark ages when it comes to concussion in football.
