Troy Deeney says ‘players and doctors should be trusted’ to make right decision over concussions after David Luiz and Raul Jimenez clash

Troy Deeney believes there was nothing wrong in Arsenal allowing David Luiz to play on after a clash of heads with Raul Jimenez that landed the Wolves star in hospital.

The players were involved a sickening collision at the Emirates on Sunday, with Mexican striker Jimenez receiving lengthy treatment on the pitch.

He was later stretchered from the field and taken straight to hospital, with Wolves confirming on Monday morning that he had undergone successful surgery on a fractured skull.

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Both Jimenez and Luiz felt the full force of the impact, but the Wolves star came off worse as he was taken to hospital

And yet, Luiz was cleared to carry on playing by the Gunners’ medical staff, albeit with a heavily bandaged head that soon was spotted with blood.

The Brazilian lasted until half-time, when he was replaced by Rob Holding, with Wolves going on to seal a 2-1 win.

Arsenal have faced criticism for allowing Luiz to play on, although the club insists the correct concussion protocols were followed.

And Deeney appeared to back the Gunners on Monday’s talkSPORT Breakfast, saying players and club doctors should be ‘trusted’ to make the right decisions.

However, it appears his opinion is not a very popular one.

The Watford striker said: “How many things are already being taken away from the players?

“You’re already told by sports scientists how much you can run, how much you can’t…

“At some point there has to be an element of trust between player and doctor.

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Luiz continued to play despite his awful collision with Jimenez

“You do have all the protocols in place. At the start of pre-season, as well as testing your heart you also do concussion tests, which are a lot of varied questions that are repeated back to you. Some are very simple that you should normally pass and get right.

“They’ll do these little tests, ask you questions as simple as ‘who are we playing today’, ‘what’s the score’, ‘what day of the week is it’ – things like that you should know instantly.

“Because when you’re concussed that will blur your memory and you might get it wrong, and that’s when they’ll say, ‘there are certain things we need to start checking now’.

“But, as a player, you know when something is not right.

“From watching David Luiz and the 20 minutes after [his clash of heads with Jimenez], he never looked shaky on his feet. His legs weren’t gone from underneath him.

“They followed all the protocols in terms of he’s ticked every box, and then afterwards you don’t see anything other than blood to suggest he’s in a bad way.”

But former Premier League midfielder Ryan Mason doesn’t agree.

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Ryan Mason had to retire due to the injury he suffered playing against Chelsea, after a clash of heads with Gary Cahill

Sunday’s incident in north London has been compared to the clash of heads that forced Mason into early retirement – the former Tottenham and Hull City ace hanging up his boots in February 2018 at the age of just 26 as a result of the serious head injury he suffered in a game against Chelsea a year previously.

Mason joined talkSPORT host Jim White on Monday morning to share his thoughts on Luiz/Jimenez clash.

He said he was ‘shocked’ Arsenal cleared the defender to continue, and insisted the out-dated and ‘dangerous’ concussion protocols MUST be improved.

“I was quite upset to see something like that happen on a football pitch again, it’s very concerning,” said the former England man.

“I’ll be honest, I was shocked David Luiz was allowed to play on.

“I’m not criticising the Arsenal doctor because there’s a protocol in place and I’m sure he’s followed that.

“But this current protocol we have in place isn’t OK, it’s not enough and it’s dangerous.

Ryan Mason disappointed that ‘nothing has changed’ in regards to the protocols of head clashes and injuries in football since his career was ended in 2017

“It was a bad one, the noise, the impact, the speed of the challenge as well, it was a bad one. It didn’t help that there were no fans and you could actually hear the point of contact.

“I looked at that and thought immediately, neither of those players can play on. Sometimes you have to forget the protocol and have a bit of common sense.

“The game needs to change this rule. It’s pretty clear that five minutes on the side of the pitch while there is pressure to get the game re-started is not enough to see if someone is concussed or not.

“It’s a real shame my incident didn’t change the perception, what is it really going to take for people to start realising this is something really, really serious?”

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Jimenez was taken to hospital after receiving lengthy treatment on the Emirates pitch, and Mason hopes his career isn’t affected

Deeney does believe, though, that Sunday’s scenes are proof concussion substitutes would work in football, saying they would change a manager’s approach if they had a risk-free sub to make while a suspected concussion is properly assessed.

“If we had concussion subs I think a manager’s mindset would change,” he added. “If he had a free substitution he would take the player off, no risk at all.

“But what happened yesterday was, you’ve got to get to half-time and reassess him because you’ve only got three subs; so Arteta is thinking, ‘if David Luiz is all right at half-time we‘ve wasted a sub we could possibly need to win the game’.

“If there is that situation where there’s a concussion substitute that doesn’t impact you, I certainly think you’ll see managers start changing the way they approach it.”