Oscar suffered a head injury after a strong challenge from Arsenal goal keeper David Ospina in the sixteenth minute of Chelsea’s game against the Gunners. The Brazilian midfielder remained on the pitch receiving treatment for a number of minutes, before eventually returning to action.
To everyone’s disbelief, Oscar remained on the pitch until half time. Oscar did not come out for the second half and was substituted for Didier Drogba. The Mail are reporting that Oscar was exhibiting a ‘fencing’ response, which is a clear sign of concussion. A member of the FA’s expert concussion panel has called it ‘completely unacceptable’.
Oscar left the Emirates at half time and was sent to hospital, Jose Mourinho later revealed he and his medical staff were ‘a little scared’ by the midfielder’s condition. This is not the first time this season that Chelsea have hit the headlines over possible concussion cases. New Premier League guidelines state, any player that has suffered any concussion, regardless of the severity, must undergo ‘a six day return to play protocol’. New rules also stipulate that managers or coaching will now no longer have the final say on whether or not a player remains on the pitch. The final call will be made by the club doctor.
However, ignoring those new strict guidelines, Oscar was named on the bench to play Leicester just three days later. Despite being named on the bench, the Brazilian did not feature. Back in October Chelsea were criticised by a brain charity, Headway. The Charity were quick to criticise the medical staff at Chelsea when they did not suspect any concussion to Thibaut Courtois in the reverse fixture back in October.
The Belgian shot stopper collided with Alexis Sanchez in the first half but was not immediately substituted. After attempting to play through the pain, Courtois was eventually substituted for Petr Cech.
