There's little scarier on a football pitch than a man being knocked unconscious, the threat of a player swallowing their tongue is all too real. Fortunately Martin Skrtel was saved that fate by a teammate.
Rugby union and American football have made incredible headway over the last few years with the problem of players being knocked unconscious, usually in clashes at tackles.
HIA's in rugby and similar protocol in the oval ball game across the Atlantic have had to be brought in due to the increased number of head injuries and the improvement in knowledge as how these things are negatively affecting players, often in future life.
Football is lucky that those things don't happen all too often but that makes the scene of a player getting knocked out all the more worrying, because of the shock factor and the game's lack of protocols.
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Fortunately for Martin Skrtel his teammates were on hand and had clarity of thought to make sure he was okay when he was knocked out when the ball hit his temple during a match between Slovakia and Thailand at the weekend.
The centre back hit the ground in an unconscious state and with medical staff not yet on the pitch teammate Ondrej Duda made sure the 33 year old's airwaves were clear and he hadn't swallowed his tongue:
The former Liverpool defender, who now plys his trade in Turkey for Fenerbahce, was treated to for a few minutes and didn't get subbed until the 73rd minute of the game, 46 minutes after the incident.
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Fortunately Skrtel did seem to be fine and he'll be happy that his team were able to go on to win the game 3-2.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Liverpool, Football News, fenerbahce
