Doctors have confirmed that Loris Karius suffered a concussion during Liverpool’s 3-1 defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League final.
The German goalkeeper, who made two errors leading to goals in the second half, was tested in the United States five days after the match, with Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston releasing a statement about the results.
“After carefully reviewing game film and integrating a detailed history – including his reported present and immediate post-contact subjective symptoms – physical examination and objective metrics, we have concluded that Mr. Karius sustained a concussion during the match May 26, 2018,” the statement read.
The report goes on to suggest that Karius’ concussion, sustained following a collision with Sergio Ramos, affected his performance.
“At the time of our evaluation, Mr. Karius’s principal residual symptoms and objective signs suggested that visual spatial dysfunction existed and likely occurred immediately following the event,” it continued.
“Additional symptomatic and objectively noted areas of dysfunction also persisted.
“It could be possible that such deficits would affect performance.”
CHRIS SUTTON’S CONTROVERSIAL COMMENTS
Karius is expected to make a full recovery, which is great news.
But many will feel that, with the two mistakes and the abuse Karius has received since the final, the damage has already been done.
BBC and BT Sport pundit Chris Sutton has reacted to the news by controversially claiming that it should have been kept under wraps.
It’s led to Sutton receiving a lot of criticism given how serious the affects of a concussion can be.
“It maybe would have been better for him to keep that to himself. What happened happened,” Sutton said on BBC Radio 5 live.
“I don’t really see the point in coming out and saying this as people will inevitably say he is making an excuse, which it may well be.
“I think it should have been kept under wraps.”
"I think it should have been kept under wraps"
Chris Sutton reacts to the news that Loris Karius sustained concussion during the #UCLfinal pic.twitter.com/lNKVMLabmq
— BBC 5 live Sport (@5liveSport) June 4, 2018
Fans criticised Sutton for what he had to say.
Incredibly dangerous thinking. We still don't know enough about concussions with many players in contact sports hiding them. Journalists should be urging players to come forward not telling them to hide no matter who it is or what the circumstances are.
— Jonathan Maxwell (@whiskerdrum) June 4, 2018
Sutton is a bit of an attention seeker but is normally not too wide of the mark. This is a catastrophic take on things though. The whole problem with concussions is people trying to sweep them under the carpet.
— Fraser Elgin (@Fraser1874) June 4, 2018
This is awful. Concussion is a serious injury, one that the footballing world (as well as other sports) needs to deal with more. I get that Chris Sutton wants to be controversial, it’s what gets him his gigs but this is extremely poor judgement.
— Scott Ely (@scottyely) June 4, 2018
Sutton has since responded to one of the tweets he received.
“I was merely pointing out from Karius point of view that some people would suggest he was using it as an excuse and leave himself open to more criticism,” the former Celtic striker wrote.
“I think if you listen to the whole piece you will see I said of the importance of taking concussion seriously.”