Neil Warnock calls for concussion substitutes in football

Trials are set to begin in the English game next season despite authorities aiming to implement them from January.

The new rule will allow permanent substitutions to be made if a player suffers a head injury, even if all replacements have already been used.

The trials are set to be discussed by law-makers next week.

A final decision will then be made when the International Football Association Board (Ifab) - football's rule-making body - meets again next month.

With EFL rules now allowing clubs to use five substitutes in games for the rest of the season, Warnock believes that it makes sense for a 'concussion substitute' to be one of the permitted replacements.

He said: "I do believe now they have agreed to nine subs, which I believe is wrong, we should be allowed to put one player on for five minutes if they get a head injury while the doctor looks in depth rather than rushing. I think that should come in as quickly as possible now with what is going off.

"There's no reason why it should not come in with nine subs. That should be the next step forward, personally."

Warnock comments come on the back of the campaign launched this week by the Daily Mail, which has highlighted the plight of dementia among several former footballers and called for immediate action in battling the disease and the need to fund key research around football’s link to the condition.

Studies have found that those who played the game professionally are 3.5 times more likely to die from neurodegenerative disease than the general population.

Warnock said: "I know it is not 100 per cent guaranteed that dementia is caused by that. But when you look at the type of footballer who is getting it now from the olden days..

"I played with (dementia sufferer) Dave Watson at Rotherham and he was my first pick every time we had a five-a-side because he was like four men on his own. Every time a ball came, he headed it thirty or forty yards. He was the best header of a ball I have ever seen in my life and it is so sad.

"I saw a little bit on the news and I saw Penny, his wife, with Dave. Every day in training, he was doing that with thirty or forty balls.

"We never thought of anything like that in the old days. But the sooner they do investigations into comparing ex-footballers with others...Because the main ones I can remember have all got it or had it. It cannot just be pot luck, it needs looking into."