THE Nasinu Football Association is in hot water for defying the tournament rules to force goalkeeper Josaia Ratu to continue playing in the Inkk Mobile Battle of the Giants semi-final against Labasa following a concussion at Churchill Park, Lautoka on Saturday.
Ratu fell twice heavily on the ground receiving a head knock in the first half of the fixture.
He was attended to by tournament Doctor Ronal Kumar who made a decision that Ratu should not continue.
The tournament regulations article 17 on Medical/Doping section d: states, that a player who experiences a suspected concussion during a match must undergo an examination by the Fiji FA doctor at the site in accordance with the protocols established by FIFA Medical Committee and/or documented in the FIFA Football Emergency Medical Manual.
The referee may temporary suspend play for up to three minutes whenever an incident of suspected concussion occurs.
The referee may only allow the injured player to continue playing with the authorisation of the Fiji FA doctor on site, who will have the final decision.
Fiji Football Association chief executive officer Mohammed Yusuf said in cases of concussion, the doctor needed to ask five questions and the player needed to answer three to four questions correctly to continue playing.
“But if the player gets two then the doctor determines that he cannot continue,” Yusuf said.
“Our rules do not allow for players to come out for concussion and go back into the same match.
“They will need to get proper medical check-up at the hospital.
“In the Nasinu vs Labasa situation, the doctor told Ratu that he could not play but Ratu said he could carry on and the Nasinu officials started to create a havoc.
“So the referee (Avinesh Narayan) told the Nasinu coach, captain and president that if Ratu goes down again then the doctor won’t go and treat him and the responsibility was with them and they agreed.
“But now we have received the report from the doctor and the referee has also given his report. We will take appropriate action against the Nasinu officials who were forcing the player to continue playing.”
