Concussion and Head Injury Assessment (HIA)

Suspected concussion is the most consequential decision you'll make on match day. Clubhouse encodes the Football Australia National Concussion Guidelines so the right stand-down floors, GRTP gates and notifications follow automatically once you flag a head injury. The full workflow — building the plan, the symptom-free clock, sign-offs and clearance — is walked through in Run a concussion through graduated return to play; this article is the clinical recognition and reference side.

Clinical principle: when in doubt, sit them out. Football Australia's recognise and remove doctrine applies. Clubhouse will not block you from being conservative.

A head injury that may be a concussion includes any of the following:

• A direct blow to the head, face, neck or elsewhere with an impulsive force transmitted to the head.
• Loss of consciousness, even briefly.
• Any of the visible signs: balance disturbance, unsteady gait, motor incoordination, blank/vacant look, slow to get up, dazed appearance.
• Any reported symptoms: headache, dizziness, confusion, nausea, vision change, sensitivity to light or noise, "feeling foggy".

There is no in-match assessment surface — the medical Matches view is read-only. Assess on the park with your usual tool (SCAT-6, ChildSCAT-6 for under-13s), then log the injury on the board the same day: Log New Injury, body region Head, and tick the amber Suspected concussion checkbox. The protocol's floors count from the date of injury you enter, never from when you logged it, so logging late never shortens a stand-down — it only delays the plan.

Once flagged, the player's unavailability flows to coach surfaces the way every injury does; there is no separate HIA lock.

Eight steps, planned by the physio against the squad's real training and fixture calendar. Coaches confirm Steps 1–6 from the chip on their session roster; Steps 7–8 are physio-only.

Step 7 also requires 14 calendar days symptom-free; a logged relapse resets that clock. "Repeat" means a second concussion within 12 months — detected automatically from the player's history. For a concussion, Step 8 and resolving the injury are the same action: Clear & return to match opens the resolve form, which requires a medical clearance date and clearing practitioner before it saves.

For under-19 players, FA guidance adds a parallel cognitive return-to-learn consideration (school load, screen time). Clubhouse shows a reminder banner on the GRTP card; the cognitive steps themselves aren't tracked in-app — discuss them with the family.

Parent-reported head injuries land in Pending Review like any other report — the concussion flag is not set automatically. Choose Accept & activate or Dismiss as usual; if your assessment says concussion, edit the accepted injury and tick Suspected concussion. Be conservative: if the parent's description includes any recognised sign or symptom above, flag it.

• Save your sideline assessment as a Clinical note.
• Save the mechanism and any witness account in a separate Clinical note.
• Attach imaging or specialist reports as Referral / report updates so they file against the injury.
• Record the symptoms-resolved date with Mark resolved on the GRTP card so the 14-day Step 7 clock runs; use Symptoms returned to log a relapse.

Football Australia recommends a medical practitioner review for any loss of consciousness (even brief), persistent symptoms beyond 7 days, a second concussion within 12 months, or any concussion in a player under 13. Capture the referral via the Referral / report update type.