Video Assessment of the Frequency and Evaluations of Head Collision Events During the 2022 World Cup

To describe the incidence, characteristics, and assessment of head collision events in the 2022 world cup, and to compare these findings with published data from prior world cups.

Video footage of the 2022 world cup.

2022 world cup participants.

Four reviewers identified head collision events through review of video footage of the 2022 world cup.

The length of each assessment, duration of player removal from game, and duration of game stoppage were recorded. These findings were compared with previous work on the 2018 world cup that evaluated these same variables.

Intotal, 147 head collision events were identified (2.30 per game). There were 123 players that had 2 or more signs of a concussion, of which 105 (85.4%) were evaluated and 35 (28.5%) were evaluated by medical personnel. There were 4 players who were removed from the game for suspected head injury. When the data from the 2018 world cup were compared with those from the 2022 world cup, duration of time stopped for evaluation was the only variable that was significantly different.

The results of this study suggest that progress has been made to properly evaluate and recognize concussions; however, further attention is clearly still required to ensure the health and safety of international soccer players.