'Staff acted impeccably' - Marcelo Bielsa defends medical staff after Robin Koch plays with concussion
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Published 22/02/2022 at 12:30 GMT
"If any club has acted impeccably with the rules regards to health, it's Leeds" - Marcelo Bielsa has defended the Leeds staff after Robin Koch returned to the field after a clash with Scott McTominay. Koch later displayed signs of concussion and was substituted. The incident drew criticism from the Professional Footballers' Association.
Robin Koch of Leeds United
Image credit: Getty Images
Marcelo Bielsa has defended the Leeds staff who responded to Robin Koch's head injury during Sunday's match against Manchester United.
Koch returned to the field after suffering a cut to the head after a clash with Scott McTominay but was later substituted after showing signs of concussion.
Brain injury charity Headway and the Professional Footballers' Association have since criticised the protocols in place which they argue do not protect player safety.
But Leeds boss Bielsa jumped to the defence of his staff, who he claimed were following the rules.
"If there's something that the medical staff at Leeds have done, and I as an extension of their decisions, it's to abide strictly by the rules whether by Covid or any knocks to the head or any other case.
"If any club has acted impeccably with the rules regards to health, it's Leeds."
Bielsa went on to say that the medical staff had no reason to believe, after the collision, that Koch was suffering from concussion.
"We did nothing different to the protocol," he added. "We did everything according to the protocol. I was convinced it was just the bleeding from the cut. That was the first conclusion after the evaluation the player had.
"When he manifested different symptoms, he was substituted. The control the player receives when they get this type of knock, the protocol that is applied is what generates whether he should be substituted or not."
The Premier League concussion substitute law allows each team to make two permanent concussion substitutes if players have head injuries, but allow for a player to continue if they show no clear signs of concussion.
As Koch did not, Bielsa says he did not want to abuse the substitution rules.
He said: "I stayed with the initial position with the absurd idea of not wanting to abuse the rules.
"The prevention of the knocks on the heads of the players is very serious, very important. That can generate real dramas. But it's also true that you should not dramatise situations that don't deserve to be interpreted in the way this situation has been interpreted."
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