Iran’s World Cup medical staff have faced a flurry of criticism after goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand was allowed to continue playing following a sickening head clash.
The Iran number one collided with teammate Majid Hosseini during the opening stages of their 6-2 loss to England.
The keeper had come to push away a cross but made brutal head-on-head contact with his teammate and was left needing treatment for around 10 minutes on the field.
Surprisingly, Beiranvand was allowed to stay on the field by medical staff despite clearly looking out of it and blood draining from his nose.
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Clearly, he was pushing to stay a part of his nation’s World Cup campaign, however, after just moments of play restarting he gestured to the bench that he needed to be substituted.
The whole ordeal took up to 14 minutes against England, as the football world was left wondering why Beiranvand wasn’t immediately brought off the field.
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.”
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Former Ireland player 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.”
Luke Griggs, who is the interim chief of brain charity Headway was extremely disappointed with the World Cup concussion protocol.
He told PA Media: “It is an utter disgrace that the Iran keeper Alireza Beiranvand was allowed to stay on the pitch.
“It was irrelevant that he came off a minute later, he shouldn’t have stayed on for a second, let alone a minute.
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“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.”
Fans watching the game live were equally unimpressed.
One tweeted: “That was very hard to watch & embarrassing for the sport.
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“Alireza Beiranvand was VERY clearly concussed, the game was stopped for ages & despite Iran’s #1 being visibly disorientated and hurt, the medical staff allowed him to continue for another 5 mins.
“Terrible.”
Another said: “Cannot believe Alireza Beiranvand has been allowed to continue. That is so, so dangerous.”
A third added: “There is no reason as to why Alireza Beiranvand should still be on the pitch after a clash like that.”
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The goalkeeper was eventually substituted for backup keeper Hossein Hosseini as England went on to take the game to the Asian side.
SPORTbible reached out to the Iranian Football Federation for comment.
Topics: Football, Football World Cup, Qatar
Jayden Collins