Senegal Defended By CAF Chief Doctor Over Handling Of Mane Concussion
Senegal have been defended by the Confederation of Africa Football’s chief doctor over their handling of Sadio Mane’s head injury against Cape Verde.
Mane suffered what appeared to be concussion following a collision with opposition goalkeeper Vozinha in the second half.
Nonetheless, the Liverpool forward was allowed to play on for six more minutes after Vozinha was dismissed for the incident and opened the scoring for his country before going to ground again.
Mane was substituted before the game was able to restart as he suffered effects of the collision but the Senegal medical team received criticism from brain injury association Headway afterwards.
"We have a very capable medical team. Senegal have two team doctors, who are highly commended," Dr. Thulani Ngwenya is quoted as saying by Sky Sports.
"I know the team doctors are responsible, so they communicate with the club and I understand that they have actually communicated with Liverpool.
"What I know is that after taking Mane for further investigations, we scanned the head and there was no structural damage, but that does not rule out concussion.
"I'm confident that my colleagues are taking care of the player and the player was in good spirits when I saw him in the hospital."
Dr. Ngwenya added: "I've heard people say, 'why wasn't he removed from the game?' The medical assessment is based on what you see and assess at that particular time.
"The medical team spent quite a significant amount of time assessing Mane.
"It might have been during the assessment the medical team came to a decision it was just a head collision, not concussion because they couldn't pick up anything that was concussion.
"We need to give the benefit of the doubt to them because you can make an assessment at the time and then two minutes later it's different.
"But when I went in there were features of concussion, hence it was easy for me to actually make that call to say we need to remove the player out of the game.
"The player is not capacitated to make a decision because they are confused, so it's you as a doctor that needs to make a decision on their behalf."
