{"id":658737,"date":"2026-05-09T00:14:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T00:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/658737\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T00:14:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T00:14:25","slug":"concussion-treatment-an-evolving-area-with-a-long-road-to-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/658737\/","title":{"rendered":"Concussion treatment an evolving area with a long road to recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was 18 months before Liam Dennis could run again without getting headaches.<\/p>\n

A keen amateur Port Lincoln footy player, Mr Dennis felt he was at the top of his game when, in 2023, he suffered a serious blow to the head.<\/p>\n

“I was, funny enough, being a short-ass in the ruck,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Liam Dennis says it is important to listen to your body when recovering from a concussion.\u00a0 (ABC Eyre Peninsula: Duncan Bailey)<\/p>\n

“It was a ball up in the pocket and I went up; the other fella went to hit the ball and basically just spiked my head instead of the ball.<\/p>\n

“That was the end of footy for me, unfortunately.”<\/p>\n

There was a long recovery waiting for him, but it was not the first time Mr Dennis had experienced a concussion.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had up to, I think, seven or eight now,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Liam Dennis says he has felt supported by his work and friends throughout his recovery. (Supplied: Rosalie Calderwood)<\/p>\n

“I had a lot in junior footy, which I think was probably part of my issue now.”<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old said recovery after his 2023 knock was rough.<\/p>\n

“I’d have a couple of months off work and just extreme fatigue, constant headaches for four months straight \u2026 not much fun at that time.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Liam Dennis says his time playing footy came to an end after a serious concussion in 2023.\u00a0 (ABC Eyre Peninsula: Duncan Bailey)<\/p>\n

“I tried to go back out to the footy after I was a bit better and I still couldn’t even hang around in the change rooms with the boys if they were singing the song.<\/p>\n

“It was just way too loud and caused this fight-or-flight reaction that I needed to get out and go somewhere quiet.”<\/p>\n

Feeling ‘not normal’<\/p>\n

“While his headaches are manageable now, some symptoms have proven difficult to bounce back from.<\/p>\n

“The majority of ones that annoy me and give me trouble is like vestibular problems, like balance issues,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You feel like you’re not normal; you know something’s not right but you can’t really fix it.”Long-term effects still a mystery<\/p>\n

Hunter Bennett, a senior lecturer in exercise science at Adelaide University, said while the short-term impacts of concussions were clear, the long-term implications were not as well known.<\/p>\n

“We do see a host of side effects that happen after a concussion,” Dr Bennett said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Hunter Bennett says while researchers have a better understanding of concussions today, the long-term implications are not clear. (BTN High: Cale Matthews)<\/p>\n

“These can be things like an inability to focus, sensitivity to light \u2026 this can often come with headaches and in some situations, loss of balance.<\/p>\n

“It does look like people who have experienced a concussion in the past are going to be more likely to experience a concussion in the future.”<\/p>\n

Dr Bennett said researchers had a better understanding today of concussion care and rehabilitation compared to 10 years ago.<\/p>\n

“But generally, these sorts of recovery processes are best monitored by someone like a physiotherapist or someone who has experience in assessing these neurocognitive factors that can happen after a concussion, because then you can get something that’s a little bit more individualised to you.”<\/p>\n

Attitudes changing, but more education needed\"A<\/p>\n

Jeziah Sundqvist says he sees concussions often, both as a physio and footy umpire. (ABC Eyre Peninsula: Duncan Bailey)<\/p>\n

In Port Lincoln, sports and exercise physiotherapist Jeziah Sundqvist says the conversations around concussions are changing.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been a physio for 20 years. I remember sitting on a bench, removing someone with a concussion [from a football match], having a coach ask them if they were OK to return.<\/p>\n

“The player said they were and went back on, and that player didn’t have any idea where they were.<\/p>\n

“That was a long time ago, but that was the sort of thing that would happen. These days in Port Lincoln, I think there’s a much better understanding.”<\/p>\n

Prior to 2024, the rest period following a concussion was 12 days under SANFL guidelines.<\/p>\n

Today, the earliest a player can return to play is on the 21st day after a concussion, following medical clearance.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jeziah Sundqvist says athletes are becoming more aware of the risks of concussions. (ABC Eyre Peninsula: Duncan Bailey)<\/p>\n

But it will still take time and education for concussions to be better understood, Mr Sundqvist says.<\/p>\n

“I think players themselves are heaps more aware \u2026 they’re happy to sit out if they don’t feel right.<\/p>\n

“But it’s harder when they feel right and want to go back.”<\/p>\n

When do you call it quits?<\/p>\n

As for when it was time to hang up the boots, Mr Sundqvist said it was a “tricky question”.<\/p>\n

“The recommendations, and I completely agree with this, is that it needs to be a multi-factorial decision,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Liam Dennis is a keen footy and baseball player, but a series of concussions forced him to step back from sport. (ABC Eyre Peninsula: Duncan Bailey)<\/p>\n

“Generally, if we look at how it’s managed in elite sport, we can still do it to a certain extent here. There might be a player’s partner \u2026 school teachers, medical practitioners and everybody should all be on the same page about that decision-making process.<\/p>\n

“And the athlete themselves, they need to understand that decision that’s being made with their involvement.<\/p>\n

“But if we think of some of the higher-profile cases that we’ve seen \u2026 Angus Brayshaw quite famously after he Magpies’ Maynard cleared by AFL Tribunal<\/a>, the decision was made that he shouldn’t play anymore.”\"Angus<\/p>\n

Former Melbourne Demons star Angus Brayshaw was forced into retirement because of concussion issues. (AAP: Tracey Nearmy)<\/p>\n

Mr Dennis said he hoped to see more investment into concussion research in the near future, and that it was important to listen to your body.<\/p>\n

“I kept pushing it thinking, ‘no, I’m tougher than this, I’m not going to let it stop me’.<\/p>\n

“Turns out that was one of the worst things I could have done \u2026 your brain just needs time to heal and I wasn’t giving it that so it didn’t play out too nicely for me, unfortunately.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Liam Dennis says he has experienced extreme fatigue and constant headaches following a serious concussion in 2023. (ABC Eyre Peninsula: Duncan Bailey)<\/p>\n

“People are catching onto it more these days. It’s tricky because none of the symptoms that I have are necessarily [ones] anyone can see.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was 18 months before Liam Dennis could run again without getting headaches. A keen amateur Port Lincoln…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[318344,64,63,101691,134,318345,56122,191801],"class_list":["post-658737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-afl-concussions","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-concussions","tag-entertainment","tag-liam-dennis","tag-regional-sport","tag-sports-injuries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}