Iran’s medical staff has come under fire for its decision to let goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand to continue playing after a brutal clash with a teammate Majid Hosseini in the 6-2 loss to England.
Beiranvand came to push away a cross, but in doing so he clattered into Hosseini and was left needing treatment from Iran’s medical staff for around 10 minutes on the field.
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Remarkably, Beiranvand wasn’t immediately substituted despite blood coming from his nose and staining his blue jersey as the medics deemed him fit enough to carry on.
But almost as soon as the game was restarted, Beiranvand fell to the turf and gestured to the bench that he needed to be taken out of the game as backup goalkeeper Hossein Hosseini replacing him.
The football world reacted with bafflement as to why Beiranvand was allowed to continue in the first place.
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“Cannot believe Alireza Beiranvand has been allowed to continue. That is so, so dangerous,” the Daily Mail’s women’s football correspondent Kathryn Batte said.
Former England international Jermaine Jenas said: “I don’t see how him carrying on is right. This is ridiculous. It’s 2022 and we are having so many discussions about concussion protocols and how it can lead to dementia. This is not OK.”
Luke Griggs, interim chief executive of brain charity Headway, described it as an “abject failure” of the World Cup concussion protocol.
“It is an utter disgrace that the Iran keeper Alireza Beiranvand was allowed to stay on the pitch,” Griggs told PA Media.
“It was irrelevant that he came off a minute later, he shouldn’t have stayed on for a second, let alone a minute.
“He was clearly distressed and unfit to continue.
“This seems to be another case of the decision being made by the player and not medical staff. This was the first test of the FIFA World Cup concussion protocol and it was an abject failure.”
Former Ireland international David Meyler wrote: “There’s no way Beiranvand should be allowed to continue after that collision. Even though he’s coming off now, he should have gone straight off.”