Silva calls for review of head injury treatment rules

After the Fulham defender appeared to put his hands to his face after being caught by Palace’s Justin Devenny’s stray arm, referee Tony Harrington asked the player to leave the field for treatment.

Cuenca walked off the pitch before the game even started because he was unhappy with the referee’s decision.

Cuenca was waiting on the touchline when Oliver Glasner’s side took the lead with a header from Jean-Philippe Mateta a short while later.

Before the 2024-25 season, Premier League rules mandated that a player must remain on the field for at least 30 seconds after the game has finished.

When the game was completely under control, we conceded a goal, according to Silva, who firmly believes that we should have been playing with just 10 men at the time.

“Football is to be played 11 against 11,” the statement read. When it’s not necessary, we can’t be calling the medical stuff constantly.

The rules for treating suspected head injuries were changed before the start of the current season to read:

The official will immediately request a doctor or physio to enter the pitch in order to promote player welfare when a player has a suspected head injury and the referee stops the game. The player must leave the pitch after the game has finished for a final evaluation and remain on the touchline for at least 30 seconds.

The rules were developed in accordance with professional game match officials Limited (PGMOL), according to Howard Webb, the chief refereeing officer, at a pre-season briefing.

This year, we’ve said that a player typically develops head injuries when they go down holding their head, according to Webb.

We’ll immediately get the doctor or physio on if the referee decides to stop the game primarily because there are concerns about it being a head injury or potential head.

There was a feeling that too frequently, players were falling down holding their heads, in addition to “we want to make sure the player gets assistance if they have a genuine head injury.” The player was fine, but the game was then being cut short as a result.