Manchester United's Raphael Varane makes alarming concussion confession - 'I have damaged my body'

Manchester United defender Raphael Varane has opened up about the toll that concussions have taken on him, revealing they affected him in some of the biggest matches of his career.

The France international, 30, says he has experienced multiple games for both club and country in which he "felt like a spectator" due to concussion symptoms.

Varane, who retired from international duty in February 2023, said he got concussed playing in France's 2014 World Cup last 16 match against Nigeria, finishing the tie in "autopilot mode." He started against Germany just four days later.

"I wasn't going to miss a World Cup quarter-final because I was a little tired," he told L'Equipe, adding that he felt "eye fatigue."

"Looking back, I say to myself if I had known it was a concussion, would I have said it, even if it meant not playing this match?

"The staff wondered if I was suitable. I was diminished, but ultimately I played and played rather well, even if I lost this duel against [Mats] Hummels [for Germany's winning goal].

"What we will never know is what would have happened if I had taken another impact to the head. When you know that repeated concussions have a potentially fatal effect, you tell yourself that things can go very wrong."

Varane said he also played with head injury symptoms for Real Madrid against Manchester City in the 2019-20 Champions League. Having left the field in a La Liga game against Getafe five days prior, he felt "intensely tired" in between the games. Unaware of the ramifications of concussion, he attributed the tiredness to end-of-season fatigue, until he reached the warm-up of the European game and felt so tired he "almost wanted to slap himself."

It is now known that after a concussion there is greater susceptibility to sustaining another concussion and that subsequent concussions occur with less force and take longer to resolve. Repeated concussions can cause brain injury and lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) - a brain disorder prevalent in people who have suffered concussions and traumatic brain injuries.

"The first time I heard about [micro-concussions] was this season when specialists came in to talk to us about it... Often, as a player, we don't understand and we don't even think about doing a test," he said.

"Earlier this season, I headed the ball repeatedly during a match for Man Utd and felt abnormally tired in the following days, as well as having some eye fatigue.

"I reported it to the staff who strongly recommended that I don't play, and I took a test which meant that I missed the next match."

The four-time Champions League winner feels that the culture of men's football is, in part, responsible for the lack of meaningful conversations around head trauma.

"As footballers playing at the highest level, we are used to pain, we are a bit like soldiers, tough guys, symbols of physical strength, but these symptoms are almost invisible."

Echoing the Football Association's landmark trial banning heading from games involving children up to age 12, Varane believes changes need to be made to protect both current and future generations from being exposed to head trauma.

"My seven-year-old son plays football, and I advise him not to header the ball.

"Even if it does not cause immediate trauma, we know that in the long term, repeated shocks are likely to have harmful effects. I don't know if I will live to be 100, but I know that I have damaged my body."

Football lawmakers, IFAB, recently approved the use of permanent concussion substitutions after repeated calls to do so from governing bodies and organisers, including the Premier League.

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