AFL acknowledges link between head trauma and CTE, in submission to Senate concussion inquiry

League ‘supports and adopts’ recent statements from US which accept association between head impacts and neurodegenerative disease

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The AFL has acknowledged the link between head trauma and the serious neurodegenerative disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), ahead of its appearance at a Senate committee hearing next month.

In a submission to the ongoing inquiry into concussions and repeated head trauma in contact sports, the AFL said it “supports and adopts” the recent statements by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) that accept the link between CTE and head trauma, and were described by campaigners as a tipping point in the debate about the risks of playing contact sport.

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