Flashing mouthguards to indicate HIA at World Cup

Flashing mouthguards to indicate HIA at World Cup

World Rugby Image caption,

The special mouthguards will roll out to the rest of the elite game after the Women's Rugby World Cup Mike Henson BBC Sport rugby union news reporter

Published

Mouthguards that flash red to indicate players require a head injury assessment will make their debut at this month's Women's Rugby World Cup before being rolled out across the elite game.

It is the next stage in the development of "instrumented" mouthguards that measure the force a player experiences in a collision and issues an alert if pre-set thresholds are exceeded.

Currently, a pitchside doctor receives an alert, triggering a mandatory 12-minute head injury assessment.

A player is then checked over and performs a series of coordination