In the 2023 Women’s World Cup, there was a new introduction to the state of play for the tournament: concussion spotters. Spotters are certified athletic trainers not tied to any specific team.

A study published in JAMA Network Neurology found that “repetitive heading during a professional soccer career is associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment later in life” and self-reported dementias in retired male professional soccer players

A recent study presented at the Radiological Society of North America found a significant decline in the microscopic structural integrity of brain tissue and a decline in verbal learning performance for young adult amateur soccer players who performed a high number of headers over two years.

A study found that female high school athletes who were highly specialized in their athletic pursuits were five times more likely to have a history of concussion compared to female high school athletes who were less specialized in their athletic pursuits.

A preliminary study suggests that younger soccer players encounter more total head impacts during “repetitive technical training activities,” while scrimmages and games resulted in fewer head impacts of “greater magnitude.”

The top-flight of English football, the Premier League (PL), announced plans to administer saliva tests that could potentially diagnose concussions sustained during games or training sessions. The trial, an academic study funded by the Premier League and intended to validate salivary biomarkers as a diagnostic tool, may start sometime this season (which ends in May 2022).

A clinical report in Pediatrics by Andrew Watson et al., generated by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness discusses risk factors and prevention tactics for youth injuries in soccer.

Given that collisions from heading are the main cause of concussions in soccer, the University of Washington Sports Institute saw a need for a program to help teach youth soccer players better heading techniques. As a result, they launched the Aerial program in collaboration with a former professional player and another organization.

While concussion in sports discussions often focus on football, in high school by far the biggest culprit is girl’s soccer. While the explanation for this gender gap in concussion risk is debated (some claim a later neck muscle development in girls), the difference of 12.1% more concussions in girls than boys is shocking (34.5% to 22.4%).