There is an increasing body of evidence which shows that maintenance of aerobic capacity and skeletal muscle strength by lifelong physical activity delays biological ageing in most organs, and therefore has a direct link to the prevention of chronic disease such as high blood pressure, type II diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and the metabolic syndrome.1^–9 This has been impressively documented in a supplement of the Journal of Sports Sciences in 2006 and also in the January 2009 issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine. In a recent paper, Booth and Roberts link performance and chronic disease risk and urge not only the unfit population to start regular physical activity, but also encourage former athletes to continue their physical activity to prevent increased risk of chronic disease.2

If sports activities are considered as health enhancing leisure activities, the risk of sustaining injury caused by particular sports activities must be reduced to a minimum by implementing appropriate preventive measures.

Concussion is a common type of brain injury caused by impact forces to the head following intentional or unintentional collisions. All sports, be they team sports (eg, football, rugby and ice hockey), or individual sports (eg, horse riding, skiing or boxing) have a finite risk of concussion injury, which should be reduced as much as possible if the potential …