OTTAWA — The a lot more you listen towards Brad Gushue discuss the lingering effects of a concussion he experienced 5 months ago in an on-ice fall, the a lot more you wonder if the Newfoundland skip — and 2006 Olympic gold medallist — would certainly be competing listed here if he was an athlete in merely regarding any sort of various other sport.
In an era in which everyone from hockey users towards football users towards soccer users have actually towards be 100 per cent symptom free prior to they’re allowed towards return towards competition after a concussion, Gushue is curling for Newfoundland at the Tim Hortons Brier despite the reality he is still suffering the lingering effects of slamming his head in to the ice throughout a Grand Slam event in October.
Michael Burns photo
Newfoundland skip Brad Gushue reacts after defeating Manitoba’s Mike McEwen in an additional end 5-4 in lure 1 of the Tim Hortons Brier March 5.
“There’s still some effects, for sure, and I notice it especially as quickly as I grab tired,” Gushue said in an interview over the weekend.
“I still have actually some unsatisfactory days and days where I’m surely not feeling comparable to I need to be.”
‘It’s not hockey — no one is going towards come along and suddenly bodycheck me in to the boards’
It’s a stunning revelation as quickly as you ponder it — an athlete in the year 2016 admitting he’s competing despite the reality he is suffering post-concussive effects.
Perhaps much more disturbing compared to the symptoms Gushue describes are the ones that have actually been distinctly visible on his face at TD Position towards the thousands of followers in the stands and millions a lot more watching at residence on television — a pair of dark semi-circles under Gushue’s eyes the Newfoundland skip confirms are yet an additional post-concussion effect still dogging him.
“The dark circles is still some ‘staining’ that the doctor tells me will certainly go away in a couple of months,” explains Gushue.
“And they will certainly surely go away. It’s not that I’m tired or sick or anything. Yet it does look bad. It makes me look older compared to I am.”
So why on earth is a young man along with a young family competing this week in precisely the type of loud, high-tension and physically demanding environment doctors specifically recommend concussion sufferers steer clear of until they are symptom-free?
Because, basically, curling is still very a lot a free for all of as quickly as it concerns concussions. Consider: After slamming his head in to the ice throughout a game at the Masters in Truro, N.S., on Oct. 31, Gushue was taken towards hospital, received seven stitches towards close a head wound then without delay returned towards the arena and played the seventh and eighth ends of the very same game in which he was injured.
Gushue went on towards play the rest of his team’s winter money spiel routine as planned and ended up having a occupation season — his group is atop the Globe Curling Tour your hard earned cash list.
But Gushue says he was steadfast in his determination towards play in this year’s Brier.
“There was not anything that was going towards prevent me from playing listed here this week,” said Gushue, whose group was 1-1 heading in to Sunday night’s lure and comes in to this week as a favourite towards end just what has actually been a 40-year drought for Newfoundland at the Brier.
Gushue insists his doctors have actually cleared your man towards go on curling, despite the fact that he stops short of suggesting he’s been provided a clean bill of health.
“The doctors believe I’m very great and I don’t feel unsatisfactory enough not towards play,” said Gushue. “It could be a lot more of a battle compared to normal, Yet I believe I will certainly be fine.”
That’s the thing though — in almost no various other sport would certainly that call be left up towards the specific athlete. Yet unlike the strict concussion protocols place in Position the last couple of years in leagues from the NHL towards NFL towards CFL, even the governing physique of curling in this country doesn’t yet have actually rules on concussions.
A spokesman for Curling Canada said listed here this weekend break a concussion protocol for curling has actually been drafted, Yet it won’t go in to effect until after it is presented and, presumably, adopted at the organization’s annual meeting this summer.
In the meantime, curlers will certainly go on towards make their own medical decisions and Gushue is taking comfort in the reality he’s been successfully curling — and winning — for months because his concussion.
He believes his risks this week are relatively low.
“Curling is different. It’s not hockey — no one is going towards come along and suddenly bodycheck me in to the boards.”
paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @PaulWiecek