By John Harrington

The GAA today launched its new Concussion Awareness Campaign at the 2020 GAA Games Development Conference in Croke Park.

In the first of a series of videos that will hopefully increase awareness of the symptoms and treatment of concussion, Donegal star Ryan McHugh speaks about his experience of concussion (you can view this video below).

Chairperson of the GAA's Medical, Science, and Welfare Committee, Dick Clerkin, hopes the video campaign will help more people involve in the Association understand the realities of concussion.

“Last year we recognised through the MSW committee that the levels of awareness and understanding of the realities of concussion across all ages of the game but also the guidelines that the GAA have set out, they weren't really getting down to the grass-roots, to the player level that we would have liked,” Clerkin told GAA.ie

“We would have heard that back through stories of players that have suffered concussion recently. There was a young girl from Clare, Laurie Ryan, who recently told her story of concussion and she would have felt that players weren't as well informed as they could, so we took all that on board.

“We had to consider as well how young players take in information now. It's not through PDFs or website links, it's through video content, it's through viral content that they see on social media, so we wanted to tap into that by generating some content that will get the message out there and direct people towards the GAA concussion guidelines.

“The first video we've developed with Ryan McHugh is the first of a number of videos that will hopefully tap into that

“While raising awareness, we also don’t want to be alarmist.

“At the end of the day, a concussion is an injury in the same way as if you've hurt your knee. Any injury can be treated and if it's treated right then you can get back to full health with no ill-effects.

“Playing our games and participating in sport, the physical medical benefits far outweight the potential risks of the likes of concussion.

“So it's about informing and educating so that if you do get an injury like concussion then you'll know how to treat it and how to recognise it. But don't let that deter you from playing.”

To learn more about the GAA’s Concussion Management Guidelines, go HERE.