FIFA's medical chief Michel D'Hooghe calls for concussion breaks

FIFA's medical chief Michel D'Hooghe has called for games to be halted for three minutes if a player suffers a suspected concussion during play.

D'Hooghe, chairman of FIFA's medical committee, said he will make the proposal to UEFA and FIFA and said only team doctors should be allowed to decide whether a player can continue, not the manager.

Pressure has been placed on football authorities following the World Cup in Brazil where there were five high profile concussion cases that fuelled the debate for action to be taken to protect players 

Fifpro, the world players’ union, accused FIFA of failing to protect players during the World Cup and called for a protocol on head injuries to become part of the rules of the game.

D'Hooghe told the Soccerex conference in Manchester: "If there is a suspected concussion we will ask the referee to stop the game for three minutes. The referee will only allow the player to continue playing with the green light of the team doctor - nobody else."

Last season, Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris was allowed to return to the pitch by coach Andre Villas-Boas during a match against Everton after appearing to lose consciousness when he was struck on the head by Romelu Lukaku's knee.

D'Hooghe said doctors rather than coaches should decide whether the player can remain on the pitch.

"This changes a little bit the function of the team doctor in this specific situation," D'Hooghe said.

"We think that three minutes is a correct time for a good evaluation of head injury concussion to see if a player can continue to play. It's not always easy. There is no one method in 10 seconds to say if you can go on or not.

"In situations when the player is falling down or is dizzy can he go on or not? What is the risk if he continues because concussions can be really serious medical problems? That is why we said three minutes seems to be reasonable.

"It is not frequent but that does not mean it is not a serious problem.

"For the general world (the World Cup) was a wake-up call because suddenly we had five concussions direct on television, repeated on television. So everyone thought it must happen very, very frequently."