France to crack down on poorly diagnosed concussion cases
Federation appalled after Toulouse centre Florian Fritz was sent back on to the pitch despite looking dazed after a knock to his head
The French Rugby Federation (FFR) will toughen its stance with Top 14 clubs for the upcoming season over the way they assess concussions during a match.
The FFR has reacted to the furore provoked by a clearly disorientated Toulouse centre Florian Fritz being sent back on in the Top 14 play-off with Racing-Metro in May after his head connected brutally with Francois van der Merwe's knee and he emerged with blood pouring from a head wound.
The federation will send an independent doctor to any team for the second part of the Top 14 campaign if they are found to have misdiagnosed a player during a game in the first half of the season. The teams involved must pay the wages and the costs of the doctor.
In spite of training sessions that we have held for a while now, team doctors have not been effectively applying our [safety] guidelines
There will also be workshops for team officials and medical staff regarding the guidelines and the routine for diagnosis if a player is concussed.
The measures have come after Jean-Claude Peyrin, president of the FFR medical commission, said he choked with anger as he watched the images of how Fritz was treated on television.
"The next day I had an e-mail from the medical director of the International Rugby Board asking me what was going on in France," he said.
"The president [of the FFR] Pierre Camou also called me from Senegal."
Peyrin said that with concussion being one of the dominant issues in the sport the negligence shown in the Fritz case presented a catastrophic image to the world.