If in doubt, sit them out.

Concussion in rugby has been a huge talking point over the last couple of years. With more and more research being done, the dangers and the signs of a heady injury are far apparent.

Rugby still has a long way to go, but in fairness to World Rugby and the unions – they really have been going above board recently to make as many changes that are neccessary to make the game safer for players at all levels.

For those of you who aren’t quite sure exactly what can happen to a player when he/she is concussed – Iain Henderson’s frightening account of one he picked up against Munster last week is a must read.

“I went into a line-out and went to call it and I just couldn’t remember any calls,” Henderson explains

“ I literally went into the huddle and I paused for 10 seconds, and I think it was Andy Warwick asked ‘what do you want to call’ and I was just looking at the ground.”

“I couldn’t even think of the simplest lineout call and I was just standing there, Big Al O’Connor said ‘I think we’ll do this one’ and I went into the line-out and still couldn’t think of it.”

“The next break in play I said to Big Al ‘you’re going to need to call these line-outs because I can’t remember any of them’, and he said ‘there’s no point in you going on if you’re like this’.”

“The physio came on to me and after the initial knock I didn’t feel too bad, and then the doctor said it can be three or four minutes for the symptoms to manifest. So then I took a knee and said to the doc at that lineout I couldn’t remember stuff.”

“That’s one of the (factors) that would completely rule you out (of the rest of the game), so they said we’re not doing HIA, let’s leave it there and went back in.

“It was just bizarre, I was lost for words. I was standing there, and I remember everyone was looking at the ground and a bit of panic set in because I couldn’t think of what to call, so I was like: ‘just call something simple’. And I didn’t even know any simple calls.”

Fair play to Ulster for acting so quickly and getting him off the pitch. Lucky for the Ireland international – this was his first ever concussion. You can read Henderson’s full interview here where he explains the HIA process among other things.

[Quotes via The42.ie]