West Coast coach Adam Simpson says the club will put their arms around Daniel Venables after the premiership forward was ruled out of 2020 with ongoing concussion symptoms.
Venables hasn't played since suffering a heavy concussion in round nine last year when he was hit in the head by an opponent's hip before striking his head on the Optus Stadium turf as he fell.
Medical staff attend to Daniel Venables in round nine last year. He has been ruled out of the 2020 season due to concussion after-effects.Credit:Getty Images
"He's going OK … but it gets to a certain point where he can't go to that next level and I think the best thing for him and his health would be to pull it back."
Simpson is hopeful Venables can return next year – but there are no guarantees.
"It was round nine last year when we had the incident, so we've given it every opportunity and the progression is just taking more time than we thought," Simpson said.
"We'll pull back a bit, do the right thing and see how he goes in the next six months.
"He's in good spirits. He's been preparing for this for a little bit. We'll work through as best we can, and put our arms around him as much as we can."
The news came on the same day that researchers revealed that Graham “Polly” Farmer had been posthumously diagnosed with stage three chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) following tests on the former champion ruckman's brain.
Farmer is the first AFL player to be diagnosed with the disease believed to be caused by repeated head knocks and concussions, which is only able to be diagnosed after death.
AAP
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