Calls for GAA to stamp down on high tackles in hurling

Hurling greats Jackie Tyrell and Dónal Óg Cussack have both raised serious concerns about the growing number of head injuries in hurling and have called on the GAA to take action.

The issue of high tackles, head injuries and concussion in hurling came into sharp focus again at the weekend.

On Saturday night Dublin's Daire Grey caught Wexford Conor Devitt late on at Croke Park while Tipperary's Ronan Maher received only a yellow card for doing the same to Cork's Darragh Fitzgibbon in the 15th minute at Páirc Ui Chaoimh.

Elsewhere Offaly's Cillian Kiely had his helmet knocked off and was laid out on the ground during his county’s Joe McDonagh cup game with Kerry and had to subsequently leave the pitch.

Speaking on the Sunday Game, Tyrell called for the GAA to step in and take a more aggressive approach to dealing with high tackles.

"There’s no doubt about it that it’s worrying to see some of these incidents," he said. "We saw Cillian Kiely for Offaly, the head was nearly taken off of him, the helmet went and I think he failed a HIA afterwards.

"Ronan Maher knew exactly what he was doing [against Darragh Fitzgibbon] and it should have been a red card.

"There have been flash points we’ve seen earlier in the round robin – we saw Seamus Flanagan as well.

"We have to understand that strength and conditioning plays a huge roll in this. Players are never more physical, they’re never more conditioned and they’re moving at a quicker pace which means the g-force they’re carrying is huge.

"Now I’m not going to sit here with a sugar-spoon and saw I haven’t contributed to the culture of that because I’ve done that in my day, I probably did worse things, so I have a role in that.

"But it’s now at a situation where the GAA have to have a look at