Playing with your head ≠ Playing with your head: A footballer has to use his "head" to play soccer, but he doesn't have to play with his head.
Headers... headers... how many? A few, a lot... When a player takes to the field, he never knows when he'll have to play with his head, but he does know that he has to be ready for it.
This Tuesday, L'Équipe published an interview with Raphaël Varane, who reveals that his body has been destroyed by brain concussions.
The Manchester United player, who won the World Cup for France in 2018, calls for changes in soccer, particularly in the way this type of "blow" is dealt with.
Varane argued that players shouldn't be subjected to so many headers and aerial clashes, recalling tackles that changed his career.
"I've had several concussions. If you look at three of the worst games of my career, there are at least two where I suffered one a few days before. One of them was against Germany at the 2014 World Cup [after the Nigeria game]," said the defender.
"At the start of the second half against Nigeria, there was a cross where I hit the ball on the temple and ended up running into the net of the goal. I finished that game on autopilot, I couldn't talk to anyone. I don't even remember the game. I wasn't feeling well on the planeand I said so," he said, as quoted byA Bola.
"When the game was over I felt tension in my eyes. Looking back, I ask myself: if I had known it was an injury, would I have said so, risking missing the next game with Germany?" At the age of 21, Varane ended up playing in the quarter-finals against Germany, in what he described as one of the worst games of his career.
Germany won 1-0 against France with a goal from Hummels in an aerial move won by Varane - who "cringed".
"In 10 years, I've never wanted to talk about it because it could sound like an excuse and I've never wanted it to sound like one, because it isn't (...) I don't know what could have happened if I'd taken another blow to the head. We know that repeated concussions have a deadly effect. At the time I wasn't a father, but now, at 30, I have three children and things are different," explains the former France international.
Another example was a match against Manchester City in the Champions League for Real Madrid, where Varane appeared to be "asleep" and said he was "very slow".
The player later linked his poor performance to a head injury that forced him to be substituted in the previous game against Getafe.
"I followed a five-day recovery protocol without too much effort. Then we had a few days off and I remember feeling intense tiredness, but I thought it was related to the normal end-of-season decompression. When I started training again, I was still tired, I felt low on energy, but I didn't relate it to the blow," he said.
"Looking back, I realized that it was related to the shock I had suffered. I questioned myself a lot and realized that those mistakes [against Manchester City] hadn't fallen from the sky," he explained.
Varane calls for change
In the same interview - entitled "I destroyed my body" - Varane calls for a change in the way soccer is played in order to prevent brain injuries and protect the body.
The Manchester United player revealed that he advises his son not to head the ball when he plays.
"My son plays and I tell him not to head (...) A brain concussion is a real health problem and it can be vital to recognize one. Things are changing little by little, but there's still a lot to be done," acknowledged Varane.
The symptoms of concussions are often invisible, but after a while they begin to affect the body. Varane is calling for greater openness in the debate on the dangers linked to second impact syndrome (the second blow suffered before full recovery from the first).
According to Sportinforma, in England, a dozen former players and the families of seven others who have already died have sued various bodies and officials in British soccer, who claim that they never took action, even though they were aware of the risks of concussions and brain injuries.
