Ex-Wolves striker Kevin Doyle opens up on concussion and retirement

Irishman Doyle, who was with Wolves from 2009 to 2015, retired last year after a stint in the MLS with Colorado Rapids.

Doyle, chatting to former Wolves and Reading team mate Stephen Hunt for a feature in the Irish Independent, revealed how being hit on the head by a clearance by Ashley Cole last year was the final straw.

"He hit the ball, a few yards from me, right on the back corner of my head and I instantly zonked out," Doyle recalled.

"Not knocked out, just gone, concussed. It was worse than I thought. I haven't seen it but the Rapids' physio had the clip on his computer and he said it was a bad one.

"My head just flopped and went 'bang, bang'. Then, it was weird. It was like I was looking down on myself playing. I went off, came back on for a few minutes and then just walked off the pitch and straight to the dressing room.

"I just was not with it at all. Even then, we were 1-0 down and I was thinking, 'I can't go off here, we're losing'.

"That's the stupid stuff you are thinking. Then the other side of me, when I'm looking down at myself, this strange feeling you are not in your body, and you think, 'this is not worth it'.

"Jenny (Doyle's wife) actually said, 'you are going to have to tell them everything'. She knew I was hiding the truth and she was fine initially with the plan to get through to the end of the season but she said I had to come clean.

"So when I went to see the neurologist, had the tests, I told him I'd been having these headaches for the last six months to a year, and he was not impressed - 'why didn't you tell me in the last meeting?'

"He changed immediately, doing more tests and told me I basically couldn't head the ball anymore. He said, 'if you can play without heading the ball, fine, play for one more year, but if you are going to head the ball, you should not play anymore.'

"I wouldn't have retired. If he had said, 'you'll be grand, get on with it' I would have carried on. And maybe five or 10 years ago, he would have said that. I even went for a second opinion, but he said the same thing.

"The thing I learned from America was health came first. It was never anything else."

Earlier in the year Doyle had suffered concussion during a match and had to have two weeks out.

However he revealed he didn't flag up a 'dazed' feeling he was getting when heading the ball.

Doyle added: "I told the neurologist nothing about the heading problem, did the protocol, did the two weeks, and was ready to come back.

"The last test you have to do before you are given permission to play, is to head the ball – the physio throws a ball from 10 yards, 15 yards, 20 yards, and you head it back to him. I did it but said nothing.

"I went home to the wife and said 'I'm f****d, I can't head the ball.' I just felt dazed. You know when someone pumps a ball up too much, you head it, and it just doesn't feel right?

"And that was every time I headed the ball, so I should have told them that. But I wanted to play, after two weeks sitting around doing nothing. I really thought it would settle down over the next few weeks and I'd be fine.

"I played and trained, but any header, and I just felt like s***.

"So I just didn't head the ball in training! At the end of training, when they were doing crossing and finishing, I'm 34 so I'd say, 'lads, I'm saving my legs, I'm going in' and no one thought anything of it, so I got away with it. I had headaches after most games, some would be OK, but sometimes I really didn't feel well.

"And it was starting to correlate but I thought I'd get through to the end of the MLS season, try get in the Ireland squad for the World Cup; Colorado were going to offer me one more season. That was the plan. One more year, I can get through it."

After the incident with Cole the following September Doyle made the decision to retire.

Hunt suggested there was still a fear from players of not wanting to reveal medical problems so as not to jeopardise their career.

Hunt said: "There will always be that element of a player not wanting to say anything because he'll be worried about losing his place, or having to stop playing.

Doyle added: "I know, but I think now you get so much education. In pre-season, you get talks with doctors that we would not have had ten years ago. Even now, I would think after a bang on the head 'am I concussed?' 'What am I doing?'

"No one questioned me, it was left to me but it is changing, in my experience.

"You know when you are in the first team, you've scored three goals, the team is winning. You can get away with it and players have done it throughout their careers. You can get away with concussion, you can play, you can do everything, but you just won't feel great. Now we know you shouldn't play on and it is not worth it.

"I would prefer someone to have said, 'you must retire'. It was left up to me and part of me did think, I could get away with it."