Raul Jimenez suffers fractured skull

[cjj]

Slaven Bilic is right. Playing with head should be banned. Yes, that would kill "traditional" football and it will change a lot (and i mean A LOT) football as it is but safety should come first.
And who knows, maybe without option to head a ball, the game would become much quicker and attractive

I have thought a lot about this, and how do you stop it? Does the head become a sort-of 'handball' type situation?

Would it be the end of crosses and corners? Long ball? Would players start competing with feet more and risk kicking others in the head etc.

OR is it like tackles and a player charging in with his head is as good as a red card? e.g. keeping heading but discouraging the incidents that cause injury.

 

[SwedishFish]

Feel really bad for him but I don't think headers should be banned because of this.

It's a freak accident and one that hit him in a very tragic way.

Hope he makes a full recovery and doesn't have to retire because of it. Fantastic striker for Wolves and surely could play for a better team.

 

[DoomSlayer]

The opinion of anyone who would put their appearance and money above their health can be safely disregarded imo

How do you imagine that happening? Ronaldo, Pogba and Neymar with headgear? I mean, Ronaldo would probably do it if it meant he keeps on breaking all the records in the history of football, but generally football players can be very self-centered and egotistical about their looks.

I even saw an interview with Oxlade-Chamberlain and he said the most vain person in their team is Van Dijk. He says he prepares himself in front of a mirror before the games and even uses perfume. I just can't imagine that happening and also if I have to be honest, football players with headgear will look ridiculous to me and lower my interest in the sport even further than it already is.

 

[bsCallout]

The opinion of anyone who would put their appearance and money above their health can be safely disregarded imo

I was under the impression that the main purpose of boxing gloves was to protect the hands, not soften the blows to the head?

A big reason is to avoid cuts too. Which to be honest - I think both are outdated.

We should place more importance on protecting the skull than the fists.

There is this horrible thing where someone with an 'iron chin' is probably just going to be brain damaged.

Ali wouldnt have survived with his style with MMA gloves in my opinion. He took too much damage and it would have been stopped.

 

[bsCallout]

I have thought a lot about this, and how do you stop it? Does the head become a sort-of 'handball' type situation?

Would it be the end of crosses and corners? Long ball? Would players start competing with feet more and risk kicking others in the head etc.

OR is it like tackles and a player charging in with his head is as good as a red card? e.g. keeping heading but discouraging the incidents that cause injury.

I dont think long balls, corners etc would end. They both are still giving the advantage to the attacking team and useful if no one can head clear.

I think it would be more entertaining personally. And you wouldnt have such a risk with people putting their head in dangerous areas, risking getting kicked.

 

[Bobade]

How do you imagine that happening? Ronaldo, Pogba and Neymar with headgear? I mean, Ronaldo would probably do it if it meant he keeps on breaking all the records in the history of football, but generally football players can be very self-centered and egotistical about their looks.

I even saw an interview with Oxlade-Chamberlain and he said the most vain person in their team is Van Dijk. He says he prepares himself in front of a mirror before the games and even uses perfume. I just can't imagine that happening and also if I have to be honest, football players with headgear will look ridiculous to me and lower my interest in the sport even further than it already is.

How do you think that makes you sound, that the welfare of players is so unimportant to you that you wouldn't be interested in watching football if they wore a bit of safety gear ?

 

[Maluco]

I think banning heading would ruin the game, but I do think that modern technology and medicine needs to have better application in the game to protect players over their careers. There should have been a medic that checked Luíz yesterday and brought him off without any say from coaches or staff.

I think this tendency towards “he had to go for it” is more dangerous and that is what needs stamping out. Football is competitive and spur of the moment, but there needs to be a re-education of what sort of balls are suitable to challenge for and appropriate penalties for reckless play.

What Luíz did yesterday was reckless. Yes, he wants to win the ball, and yes, he has seconds to decide, but it just wasn’t going to happen and he deserved to be punished for contesting it in my opinion.

The same is true for a lot of these bad injuries. Jimenez, Eduardo, Cech... The challenge wasn’t necessary and shouldn’t have been made. I think we need to get away from “the ball was there to be won” and have harsher deterrents for reckless play instead of completely reinventing the game.

 

[arthurka]

Not that I want to start a discussions regarding this but banning heading isn't that a bit I don't know strange? People have died on the pitch because their heart failed. Should we ban running too? It's a contract sport and should be treated as such. But steps should be taken to reduce the chances of this happening.

Of course there should be some changes for one it should not be allowed to come flying into your opponents, forehead first with no possibility of getting the ball. Heading into your opponents head from behind and in the side where the other player has no possibility to get out of the way should be a straight red offensive.

How on earth isn't this a red card? Luiz comes flying into this and has no chance to get the ball and leaves his opponent with a broken skull. It was a terrible incident and left me absolutely shocked seeing Luiz head Jiminez straight into the side of his head with no vital signs coming from Jiminez.

 

[L1nk]

It's unfortunate for Jimenez, a sickening incident for sure and I wish him well, but Football is a contact sport.

Players health should always come above and beyond anything else, without a doubt, and there should definitely be some regulations and things that change in order to better facilitate head injuries in the game, concussion subs, players coming off immediately after sustaining one, head gear of some sort if that helps, whatever it is. For me though the reality is when you play a contact sport you know you are signing up for the possibility you can get injured, in a potentially life altering way. It would be like saying, well Boxing has the potential for head trauma so we should ban boxers from punching, or ban Rugby players from tackling becuase they don't wear any protective gear.

I would be interested to see some kind of detterent in that, if you absolutely cannot see yourself getting to the ball, then you should absolutely not go for it, rather than the attitude of charging in recklessly in the hopes you get it, and if you don't do that you're letting your team down, it results it catastrophic results more often than not.

It's a very sad incident, but its one that happens very rarely, in football you run the risk of a head injury, just as you run the risk of getting your leg snapped in multiple places and never being able to use it again.

 

[DoomSlayer]

How do you think that makes you sound, that the welfare of players is so unimportant to you that you wouldn't be interested in watching football if they wore a bit of safety gear ?

I honestly don't care how that makes me sound. Modern football has already almost lost me, my passion for Manchester United is the only thing connecting me to the sport at the moment.

 

[Andycoleno9]

I have thought a lot about this, and how do you stop it? Does the head become a sort-of 'handball' type situation?

Would it be the end of crosses and corners? Long ball? Would players start competing with feet more and risk kicking others in the head etc.

OR is it like tackles and a player charging in with his head is as good as a red card? e.g. keeping heading but discouraging the incidents that cause injury.

Heading=handball. You can't do it.
Of course it would change the game but it can be done. Look at futsal. How many times they head the ball during the game? Only few times.

Anyway, it can be done but i guess, it will not. Smaller clubs will be first to say no because it will be advantage to better teams

 

[Terminator]

Absolutely sickening. One moment you are one of the top strikers in the world entertaining millions around the globe and the next moment it could all be over.

 

[Poborsky's hair]

Cech never had to go for a header. It will be very different for an outfield player.

Maybe but he´s a goalkeeper, who had his skull ruptured in a challenge which keepers can go through many. Really depends on the severity of the injury, he might recover fully physically with the state if science now and if it´s minor. It´s the confidence which will be tested the most but yeah outfield players head the ball more.

 

[TrustInOle]

Absolutely heart broken for the lad. Wanted him here before we got Cavani as I love everything about his game. Wish him all the best and a speedy recovery. Devastated for his career, but health is astronomical levels more important.

Now we have VAR in play, I see no reason to not have challenges like this checked for aggressive play as Luis, as with Cahill, was nowhere near getting the ball. On Luis, shocking stuff he was allowed to continue, seemed like a match right out of the 60's. Truly shocking stuff all round.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

Hope he recovers soon.

 

[Terminator]

It looked a fairly even 50-50 for the ball between Luiz and Jimenez to me when watching it live. Can't get myself to watch it again.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

I'm very sorry to learn of this. For his health, his career and the family that depend on him. Jimenez is a wonderful player to watch.

But banning heading? Raul Jimenez would be the first player to laugh at banning headers given that a big portion of his game is based on it. Phil Hughes died after being hit by a bouncer. Raman Lamba died after being hit a cricket ball while fielding. We've just seen a Formula 1 driver walk away from a crash. It's part of the risk that sports entails unfortunately and partly why these lads are paid so much. They are the best at what they do and brave.

They wouldn't if the sport made it mandatory to be subbed off. We might need a retired hurt substitute who can be rotated in case of a concussion or an extra sub for these kind of injuries that's only triggered in such cases.

Think they were more his thoughts and him them attributing it to every other professional footballer.

 

[United Hobbit]

Just saw the clip the sound was horrific like when a ball hits the advertising hoardings or something.

Hopefully he will be OK, and can get back to full health and hopefully playing again if its safe for him. I know Petr Chec did return but he always wore his headguard plus as a goalkeeper, wouldn't have had to head the ball again much.

I'm surprised Luiz carried on after that, surely if he passed the initial tests he should be tested again 5 minutes later etc in case of delayed concussion

I can remember Bailly for us this season, hit heads, carried on, then had another bang to the head and he sort of keeled over at the side of the pitch and went to hospital- did the first bang make him more susceptible to the second feeling worse?

I don't watch boxing but how are they allowed to fight without headguards. I can imagine the force someone like Anthony Joshua can punch with, surely it wouldn't make it less of a "spectacle" if they had headguards?

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

I'm very sorry to learn of this. For his health, his career and the family that depend on him. Jimenez is a wonderful player to watch.

But banning heading? Raul Jimenez would be the first player to laugh at banning headers given that a big portion of his game is based on it. Phil Hughes died after being hit by a bouncer. Raman Lamba died after being hit a cricket ball while fielding. We've just seen a Formula 1 driver walk away from a crash. It's part of the risk that sports entails unfortunately and partly why these lads are paid so much. They are the best at what they do and brave.

They wouldn't if the sport made it mandatory to be subbed off. We might need a retired hurt substitute who can be rotated in case of a concussion or an extra sub for these kind of injuries that's only triggered in such cases.

good post. There are inherent risks playing football. And I would suggest there have been far more frequent career ending injuries as a result of tackling than by heading the ball.

I wasn’t entirely paying attention to the incident yesterday, but I can’t bring myself to watch a replay. Considering you can get a red card for a mistimed tackle, it seems wrong that you can misjudge a header, potentially recklessly and not be punished. I’m making some assumptions based on what people have said, as I don’t want to watch the clip.

some serious failings from the authorities/ arsenal in allowing Luis to continue. Of course the player wants to carry on, their drive/ determination/ bravery is why they are top players, but it can be detrimental, and the decision needs to be taken away from them.

 

[Snow]

Players welfare in general isn't taken care of in the PL. It's why the likes of Chris Wilder can hold the PL hostage over 5 subs and on top the likes of BT and Sky dictate when clubs play their fixtures.

Chris Wilder can't do that. 14 out of 20 clubs needed to agree it so there was at least 6 other clubs that agreed with Wilder.

 

[Hernandez - BFA]

I seriously wish him the speediest and safest recovery possible.
Unfortunately, I can't help feeling incredibly negative and think that Jimenez may not return to competitive football.
I hope i'm wrong and the type of skull fracture is important - but for him to have surgery on it means it's a nasty one. I can't think of many outfield players who come back to play after such an injury.

 

[Sean_RedDevil]

He was on my transfer wishlist in the summer and i had him in my FPL team in the last season therefore i really feel sorry for him

 

[wr8_utd]

Can a striker Jimenez whose aerial ability is a big part of his game ever actually come back to play football again?

 

[Eyepopper]

It was completely fecking reckless by Luiz, how is he not red carded for that?

If the ball is on the ground and he goes in like that, misses the ball, and snaps an ankle instead of a head, does he stay on the pitch?

 

[sammsky1]

I seriously wish him the speediest and safest recovery possible.
Unfortunately, I can't help feeling incredibly negative and think that Jimenez may not return to competitive football.
I hope i'm wrong and the type of skull fracture is important - but for him to have surgery on it means it's a nasty one. I can't think of many outfield players who come back to play after such an injury.

Yeah. Feel exactly the same. I researched him since we were linked to signing him and he is a phenomenal talent. Would be a massive loss to EPL if he foist come back, let alone the personal devastation. Really hope he can recover and play again.

 

[HowYouDoin]

Jimenez one of the best strikers in the PL but unfortunately he wont be able to play again.
Really feel bad for him. Hope he gets all the money that is still owed to him and that he is financially set.

As for the issue of headers in football, well you dont have the game of football without headers. It just doesnt work. Its not just crosses, its also long balls, clearances, the sport just wouldnt be the same.

If you are going to change anything, players should wear some kind of a protective gear.
Maybe those waterpolo style caps or something. Something that doesnt get in the way too much but still protects them.

 

[Threesus]

It was completely fecking reckless by Luiz, how is he not red carded for that?

If the ball is on the ground and he goes in like that, misses the ball, and snaps an ankle instead of a head, does he stay on the pitch?

I mean, it happpened with Luke shaw and Hector Moreno got a Man of the Match award.

 

[HowYouDoin]

Peter Cech's protective helmet is what every player should wear.
Would be nice for teams as well as they could sell more than just jerseys, those helmets should be standard equipment and voila.
Problem solved.

 

[USREDEVIL]

Hope for a speedy recovery for Jimenez. Been wanting us to sign him for a couple years now. Luiz....the man is a disaster.

 

[RoyH1]

Really heartbroken for Raul. Such a fun player to watch and he was right in his prime.

I hope he listens to his doctors and family and retires. That said, I would not be surprised if he tried a comeback to football despite the risks involved.

 

[kouroux]

The stupidity of Arteta and Arsenal medical to allow Luiz to go back out there...

 

[Godfather]

Great player. Such a shame for him. Maybe he'll get lucky and will be able to play again?

 

[UmbroDays]

I'm very sorry to learn of this. For his health, his career and the family that depend on him. Jimenez is a wonderful player to watch.

But banning heading? Raul Jimenez would be the first player to laugh at banning headers given that a big portion of his game is based on it. Phil Hughes died after being hit by a bouncer. Raman Lamba died after being hit a cricket ball while fielding. We've just seen a Formula 1 driver walk away from a crash. It's part of the risk that sports entails unfortunately and partly why these lads are paid so much. They are the best at what they do and brave.

They wouldn't if the sport made it mandatory to be subbed off. We might need a retired hurt substitute who can be rotated in case of a concussion or an extra sub for these kind of injuries that's only triggered in such cases.

These incidents then caused specific safeties to be put in place e.g the Halo, new shaped Helmets. In ice hockey when a goal tenders neckngot sliced open by a skaters blade they added neck protectors to the helmets.

Football will need to do something drastically thst doesn’t involve just a concussion check. They will need to reduce the effect of when something happens

On the issue of safety, I do think we are pretty good in this country but David Luiz yesterday needed much more than a 2 minute check. I don’t think David Luiz should be punished for going for a ball he had every right to go for, if it wasn’t for the injury no one would be saying it was dangerous. I’ve seen someone put forward an idea that heading the ball should be banned which is ridiculous, heading the ball is a huge part of the sport and it may be a little bit dangerous but isn’t there an element of danger in most sports? The danger in sport is what draws many people to them, I love watching the 50/50’s in football, the big tackles in rugby & ko’s in boxing. If you are not willing to take the risks, don’t play the sport.

It's pretty rich saying "if you don't want the risk, don't play sport" from your couch and not putting your career, health, and life on the line. Sport, especially boxing doesn't need to have life-threatening injuries.

Rugby changed their tackling rules because of injuries. Jumping to get a ball means you cannot be challenged unless your feet are on the ground.
NFL introduced SOOOO many rules including the fair catch for when a a receiving team catches punt and the catcher is unchallenged. They also introduced a rule that allows wide receivers to only be challenged once they're in possession of the ball
Boxing is designed to be violent, that's completely different. One of the ways to win is to render your opposition as unconscious to win
F1 introduced helmets in 1952 and more recently the Halo protection and added helmet technology protection

All these things were added to reduce risk, and also reduce the effect of when a risk occurs. Football needs to wake up and make some changes somewhere

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

This may come across as a crazy notion as I’ve not really seen it discussed anywhere else, but it’s been something I’ve thought about since the Ryan Mason injury. How is something like this in the modern game just seen as a ‘clash of heads’? You’ve got David Luiz (or Gary Cahill which was a better example) absolutely flying head first for a ball he’s never going to get to and ending his opponents career in the process. Yes it’s unfortunate and unintentional, but so are most leg breaks. They don’t even give yellow cards.

I remember when we played Southampton last season, Walker Peters did similar to Brandon Williams, got nowhere near the ball, whilst on a yellow card, and it was never even suggested that he should’ve received a second. Meanwhile Williams has to go off and we concede playing the rest of the game with 10 men. It just seems like a blind spot at the moment that needs to be addressed. If you go with that force for a ball you aren’t going to win and hurt an opponent in the process, then it’s a red card.

Couldn’t agree more it’s dangerous play (perhaps more dangerous than a slide!) and never gets rightly judged. They are red cards plain and simple.

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

I know everyone will immediately think of Ryan Mason which was a really sad case but that doesn’t necessarily mean the same will apply here. Let’s hope he has a speedy recovery and gets back on the field as he’s a class player.

 

[UmbroDays]

On the issue of safety, I do think we are pretty good in this country but David Luiz yesterday needed much more than a 2 minute check. I don’t think David Luiz should be punished for going for a ball he had every right to go for, if it wasn’t for the injury no one would be saying it was dangerous. I’ve seen someone put forward an idea that heading the ball should be banned which is ridiculous, heading the ball is a huge part of the sport and it may be a little bit dangerous but isn’t there an element of danger in most sports? The danger in sport is what draws many people to them, I love watching the 50/50’s in football, the big tackles in rugby & ko’s in boxing. If you are not willing to take the risks, don’t play the sport.

Rugby changed their tackling rules because of injuries. Jumping to get a ball means you cannot be challenged unless your feet are on the ground.
NFL introduced so many rules including the fair catch for when a a receiving team catches punt and the catcher is unchallenged. They also introduced a rule that allows wide receivers to only be challenged once they're in possession of the ball
Boxing is designed to be violent, that's completely different. One of the ways to win is to render your opposition as unconscious to win

It's pretty rich saying "if you don't want the risk, don't play sport" from your couch and not putting your career, health, and life on the line. Sport, especially boxing doesn't need to have life-threatening injuries.

 

[SiRed]

I dont think heading can be banned from the game. But i think the rules should be altered.
If they made a rule were any header that involves a jump from 1 foot, awards a free kick to the other team.
This would mean to jump for a header, you would need to jump from 2 feet, which means you can only jump directly up and you would lose the running jump, which causes a lot of the issues.

 

[Zehner]

I know better than most how a life threatening injury can impact ones ability to play sports, so it isn’t that rich coming from me, to be honest. A change in the heading rule could potentially give me a small chance of playing 11 a side football again (depending on the rule change) but I’m still not for it until a well thought out proposal that doesn’t change the game too much is put forward.

Of course sport doesn’t need life threatening injuries, but we can’t change rules so much so that the sport is unrecognisable. I really do understand your point of view, but the rule changes in the sports you mentioned are all fairly basic and were easy to implement, I don’t see a way of changing the heading rule that doesn’t entirely impact the way football is played.

But that’s just my opinion.

You don't need to adjust the rules so that the sports changes too much. Just need to apply the same handling of fouls on the ground with headers. Go in recklessly and injury risking and you receive a red card, quite easy. David Luiz wouldn't go into a header like that if he had already received a few red cards for similar challenges. Right now the rule is more like "oh, he bumped his own head, too, so that should be punishment enough".

There's no issue with jumping into an air ball like Luiz has done - in the same way there is no issue with attempting an overhead kick. Just don't do it when someone else goes towards it head first, too. It was a really dumb situation from Luiz. He could've seen coming that they'd hit their heads against each other.

 

[Acheron]

It was super reckless from David Luiz, he obviously didn't intend to knock him unconscious while breaking his skull but he tried to challenge a ball he knew wasn't getting just to crash into Raul Jimenez and make it look like it isn't a foul. So I agree with everyone saying that the referring needs to be more strict with this type of challenges and start penalizing them in order to discourage players to keep doing stuff like that. Then letting Luiz to keep on playing was negligent as well but Raul got it was worse as he didn't even saw someone was coming at him at full speed to crash onto his head and punch him in the mouth.

Spoiler

 

[Meep]

It was super reckless from David Luiz, he obviously didn't intend to knock him unconscious while breaking his skull but he tried to challenge a ball he knew wasn't getting just to crash into Raul Jimenez and make it look like it isn't a foul. So I agree with everyone saying that the referring needs to be more strict with this type of challenges and start penalizing them in order to discourage players to keep doing stuff like that. Then letting Luiz to keep on playing was negligent as well but Raul got it was worse as he didn't even saw someone was coming at him at full speed to crash onto his head and punch him in the mouth.

Agreed. Why wasn't this VAR:ed as a red due to the recklessness..? I must admit I dont know the rules. If the rules doesnt make this a red the rules should be overlooked.