CBS Atlanta 46Study: Girls more likely to sustain concussions in high school soccer

Alex Anne Matthews, 16, has played soccer since she was 4.

"I like to call it the next step down from rugby. You don't tackle people but you come close to it," she said.

Now a junior at The Lovett School in Buckhead, the soccer field is more like a battlefield. "I've broken a couple bones and had one concussion before this one," Matthews said.

Her latest injury happened Sept. 4. "She came up from behind me and slide-tackled my feet out from under me, and I landed on my side, and the first thing to hit the ground was my head."

Her parents were watching from the sidelines. "Alex Anne got up like she always does and staggered a little to her right. And Chip and I looked at each other and went, 'that doesn't look good," said Anne Matthews.

She complained of a headache, but went on to play another game that afternoon. "She seemed fine and then that night is when she started getting sick," Chip Matthews said.

Nausea, dizziness, blurred vision - Alex Anne had a severe concussion.

"There's actually sheering forces that occur inside the brain, and the brain literally gets shaken inside the skull," described Dr. Kenneth Mautner with Emory's Sports Medicine program.

A new study suggests girls are 64 percent more likely to suffer concussions than boys in high school soccer. Mautner said there are different theories as to why.

"Something just as simple as girls report concussions more because they're more likely to say when they're hurt and not feeling well," Mautner said. Some experts believe guys can absorb shock better because they have stronger neck muscles, and some even think women's hormones might increase their risk of injury.

Researchers also found girls may take longer to recover from head injuries. "Unfortunately, there's no magic bullet to get these folks better. Most athletes do respond to a simple treatment of just rest," Mautner said.

And it's vital that they don't get back on the field too soon. Trainers at The Lovett School (and all 32 NFL teams) use a computer program called imPACT to help determine when athletes are ready, but it's not foolproof.

"There's no one test to say you're ready or you're not ready, so we see how their symptoms are. They need to be completely asymptomatic at rest, they need to be asymptomatic with exertion," Mautner explained.

While the study's authors don't want parents to panic and pull their kids out of sports, they do need to be more aware of the signs, such as headaches, confusion, drowsiness and sensitivity to noise.

"I think with proper assessment, management and treatment, we want our kids to be active and play sports, we just want them to do it safely," Mautner said.

Six weeks later, Matthews is back in the game and looking forward to her next goal: College soccer. "I don't know if I'm good enough, but I think that'd be fun."

Mautner said the culture of high school sports has changed over the last five years. He said coaches are much more aware of injury and even the school Matthews goes to has a protocol for kids with concussions.

They give those students extra time to complete homework, let them sit in quiet, dark rooms and let them go to the nurse or home if necessary.

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