Allan Alaalatoa says he won’t change the way he plays when the Brumbies captain and Wallabies star returns from his latest concussion against the Crusaders on Friday night.
Alaalatoa has been dealing with his third concussion in eight months, subbed off early in their Super Round clash with the Blues and missing their previous two matches against Queensland and Moana Pasifika.
He previously suffered them in Wallabies Tests against England in July and Scotland in October and had an extended break at the end of the international season, as well as an extra week after the incident against the Blues.
Alaalatoa, who said he’d been working on defensive technique, accepts his style of play meant he might have to deal with more knocks moving forward.
“Sometimes that’s just the game, the one (versus the Blues) was just unfortunate,” he told the Draft Rugby podcast.
“Every time I approach the game now, I don’t change the way I play.
“It’s more about understanding when I come back there is a chance of something happening, just because of the way that I play.”
Alaalatoa’s situation arises as sports continue to fine tune their responses to concussions.
The NRL last week implemented a mandatory 11-day stand-down after a concussion, while the AFL is facing a class-action lawsuit from former players dealing with long-term affects.
Alaalatoa’s situation is similar to Newcastle NRL star Kalyn Ponga, who recently suffered a fourth concussion in 10 months.
The Knights are yet to determine if Ponga will be given an extended break, although he wasn’t named for their weekend clash with Canberra.
Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham admitted his club had taken a cautious approach given Alaalatoa’s history, adding all players were constantly improving tackling technique.
“We’re just taking our time with this one,” he said.
“He was actually right to go last week but it’s like any injury, there is a recommended amount of time you stay out for injuries but in Al’s case we felt it was appropriate to give him another week just to make sure everything inside the head has recovered as best as possible.
“Most of them are unlucky, just clashing heads with one of our players, as opposed to putting his head in the wrong position, or potentially tackling with bad technique.
“We’ll constantly work on that, we work on that as a team, but for Al it has been a little bit of bad luck. Until we see something with bad technique … we’ll keep plodding along.”
But Alaalatoa said honesty when addressing symptoms was highly important, stressing he backed World Rugby’s 12-day concussion return to play protocols and knew they were designed to value player welfare.
“I’ve had quite a few now, the way I always address them is making sure I’m honest with my symptoms, ticking the boxes along the way, just doing what I can to get back,” he said.
“The first week you can be really light in terms of what you do physically and then hit it pretty hard if you’re feeling well the following week.
“Now when you get concussed, you think ‘far out, you’re missing next week as well’, instead of trying to think why that’s there in the first place.
By Alex Mitchell in Canberra
