This week's UEFA's Champions League games included new rules, with the European soccer governing body implementing new protocols for players that are concussed during a matches.

Under the new rules, referees will be allowed to stop matches for up to three minutes while doctors, not the coaches, determine whether a player suffered a concussion and can continue to play.

"It's the team doctor who can immediately see the situation, he is the most reliable person to take this responsibility," said UEFA secretary general Gianni Infantino.

The move to have doctors, and not coaches, determine whether a player is healthy enough to play after a head injury is being hailed as the right move by the UEFA referees' chief Pierluigi Collina.

"I am pleased the new procedure in case of concussion will be implemented this week, just a few days after it was approved by UEFA's executive committee," Collina said. "In my opinion, the new procedure gives referees a clear view of who makes the final decision on whether a player can continue to play or has to leave the game -- it is the team doctor and no-one else. I hope this will lead to improved health and safety of players overall."

Concussions have become a topic of conversation in soccer after several controversial incidents during the 2014 World Cup that included Uruguay midfielder Alvaro Pereira getting knocked out after taking a knee to the head. Pereira quickly returned to the game.

In another incident, Argentina midfielder Javier Mascherano collided head-to-head with Georginio Wijnaldum of the Netherlands during the World Cup semifinals while battling for a header and stumbled to the ground, dazed and glassy-eyed. But Mascherano was back on the pitch in less than two minutes despite showing signs of a concussion.

And in the Finals of the 2014 World Cup, Germany midfielder Christoph Kramer smashed his head against Argentinian defender Ezequiel Garay's shoulder in the 19th minute and was substituted until the 31st minute, the German player saying he does not remember much about the title game.

"I can't remember that much from the game," said Kramer, currently playing in Bundesliga team Borussia Monchengladbach. "I don't know anything from the first half. I thought later that I went straight off after the incident. How I got to the changing rooms I do not know. I don't know anything else. The game, in my head, starts only in the second half."

The English Premier League's (EPL) new concussion protocols may be more stringent than those UEFA and FIFA. Unlike the European and world governing bodies, EPL home teams will be required to hire a third "tunnel" doctor that will serve as a neutral doctor for both teams to determine potential concussions on the field. Players who lose consciousness or deemed to have suffered a concussion will not be allowed to play in the game.

Calls for better medical treatment of concussions in the EPL became louder and louder after an incident last season when Tottenham keeper Hugo Lloris was knocked out cold by Everton's Romelu Lukaku. Lloris continued to play despite not being able to remember anything from the match.

"This was certainly one of the cases we brought into the discussion with the doctors, as well as World Cup cases and these cases played a part in making us want to change from 'medical guidance advice' to the strict medical rules I am proposing," said Michel D'Hooghe, the chairman of FIFA's medical committee and a UEFA executive committee.

Queens Park Rangers (QPR) coach Harry Redknapp suggested EPL teams should get temporary substitutions, similar to the rules used in the English rugby league, while a concussed player is being diagnosed. Rednapp feels teams are punished as they wait for the trainers to make the proper medical decisions. QPR defender Sandro was taken out of the game 11 minutes into the match against Southampton after the Brazilian took a blow to the head in QPR's 2-1 loss last Saturday.

Redknapp argued that his player could play after halftime.

"You couldn't wait 10 or 15 minutes with 10 men; you couldn't give medics that amount of time to look at a player. But it doesn't sound the worst idea for a temporary replacement, so that the doctors could have a longer look," Redknapp said after the game. "At half-time there didn't seem to be a lot wrong with Sandro to me. He was fine in the changing rooms, he didn't look too bad at all but obviously the doctors have got to err on the side of caution."

While the idea of a temporary substitution sounds reasonable, in a sport where flopping is such a big part of the culture, who is to say that teams will not abuse the extra substitution to their advantage?

Editor-in-chief of Dreamstartsoccer.com, Joseph Howard -- whose site looks to educate American fans on the sport of soccer as it continues to grow in popularity -- does not believe that coaches would try to abuse any rule that would give a team a temporary substitution if a player went down with some sort of head trauma.

"I don't foresee this being a serious issue, but I'd be surprised if we didn't see extra substitutions being made on occasion if this rule was established," Howard said to Latin Post. "As long as the medical team properly diagnoses players as needing to come out, we shouldn't see this particular rule being abused."

Luke Griggs, director of communications for Headway, a brain injury association in the United Kingdom, believes that such a temporary substitution may not be a great idea for different reasons altogether that have nothing to do with gamemanship or strategy, especially in the case of situations like Sandro's, where the coach is pushing for the player to return to the match.

"Concussion is an evolving injury and the symptoms may take time to manifest. Damage such as bleeding or swelling to the brain may not be immediately obvious, while continuing to play after suffering a concussion can make you more susceptible to further, more damaging, injury," Griggs said to the U.K.'s BBC.

"The danger with allowing temporary substitutions is that the period of assessment for a player is very limited. In addition, this assessment is conducted in a non-clinical environment," he said. "Until we have a more robust, scientifically accurate means of quickly assessing concussion during games, the safety-first approach must be taken."

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