Foe
04-03-2018, 01:09 PM
Been having a bit of a debate with some pals here following the Davide Astori death.
Hypothetical question: If you had a heart defect, or other health condition considered to put you at risk, would you give up being a professional sportsman or continue and accept the risk?
For me, there's a number of factors that would come into it but if someone told me tomorrow that I have some heart defect that put me at risk of heart attack/death that meant the safest thing to avoid that risk was to give up the sport I played (and presumably loved) and live a scaled down life, I'd ignore it and continue. I'd re-evaluate every year to understand whether that's still the position I had or whether other events in my life would tip it the other direction.
What would you do?
I seem to be of the complete opposite view point of my friends who would effectively give it up and move on.
A couple of examples:
Davide Astori, Marc Viviene Foe, Muamba, Puerta, Phil O'Donnell all had incidents during their playing career.
Ryan Mason (football) retired because of the risk associated with continuing football. Whilst Petr Cech opted to continue.
In American football, many players have chosen to retire because of the perceived threat of concussions and implications in later life. John Urschel (Baltimore Ravens chose to retire after just 3 seasons), Chris Borland (49ers, chose to retire after his rookie season after being drafted).
There's many other players rumoured to be considering retirement due to concussion concerns (CJ Fiedorowitz being an example).
What would you do? What would sway it for you? Is it even a consideration or a simple decision?
Hypothetical question: If you had a heart defect, or other health condition considered to put you at risk, would you give up being a professional sportsman or continue and accept the risk?
For me, there's a number of factors that would come into it but if someone told me tomorrow that I have some heart defect that put me at risk of heart attack/death that meant the safest thing to avoid that risk was to give up the sport I played (and presumably loved) and live a scaled down life, I'd ignore it and continue. I'd re-evaluate every year to understand whether that's still the position I had or whether other events in my life would tip it the other direction.
What would you do?
I seem to be of the complete opposite view point of my friends who would effectively give it up and move on.
A couple of examples:
Davide Astori, Marc Viviene Foe, Muamba, Puerta, Phil O'Donnell all had incidents during their playing career.
Ryan Mason (football) retired because of the risk associated with continuing football. Whilst Petr Cech opted to continue.
In American football, many players have chosen to retire because of the perceived threat of concussions and implications in later life. John Urschel (Baltimore Ravens chose to retire after just 3 seasons), Chris Borland (49ers, chose to retire after his rookie season after being drafted).
There's many other players rumoured to be considering retirement due to concussion concerns (CJ Fiedorowitz being an example).
What would you do? What would sway it for you? Is it even a consideration or a simple decision?