The FA has taken a more proactive approach and it follows an interventionthis year to ban players under the age of 12 from heading the ball in training. Further changes for youngsters seem likely and the FA has also committed greater funding to research into the links between heading the ball and neurodegenerative conditions.

Concussion substitutes would not relate specifically to heading but to head injuries more broadly. The specific scheme recommended by Ifab would see an extra permanent substitute granted to a team who had assessed a player to be at risk of concussion.

An alternative to the permanent substitution would be a temporary one, as practised in rugby union. It is understood Ifab rejected this option, believing that because a number of concussion symptoms do not emerge until at least half an hour after an incident doctors may decide a player is fit to return to play and run the risk of a potentially highly damaging repeat injury to the head.