In this autoethnography, I explore my experiences with sport-related concussion. I portray the challenges that the symptoms presented, but I also provide a wider social, cultural and political context that includes the normalisation of pain and injury in collision sports and the discourses that contribute to a culture where players minimise the severity of, and play through, concussion. Following my career, this article showcases a ‘culture of knocks’, highlighting how these discourses are learned and reproduced, the complex relationship between teams and medical staff, and anxiety over long-term consequences.
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Tom Kavanagh (2024) studied this question.
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