Hibs winger Martin Boyle 'remembers nothing' from concussion

The winger returned to action during Saturday's Premiership defeat to the Ibrox side, as he recovered from an accidental collision with John Souttar during the quarter-final meeting at Easter Road on March 10. After being laid out motionless on the pitch, an ambulance rushed Boyle to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and although he was discharged that same evening, the 30-year-old was then bedridden for six days.

Concussion protocol dictates a gradual resumption of activity, and players are only permitted to return to the pitch with an all-clear from a doctor. Boyle sat out Australia's international fixtures in the fortnight following his injury, but was a second-half substitute at the weekend as Hibs went down 3-1 in Glasgow.

Speaking about the incident for the first time, he expressed gratitude for the quick response from medical staff, revealing he has no recollection of the game and what followed.

“[I remember] nothing. Nothing at all," said Boyle. "I don’t remember anything about the game, it’s just a blur, and obviously I got home the same night. But I wasn’t in any condition to have conversations.

“I don’t remember going to hospital. I don’t remember. My wife was in the ambulance, I don’t really remember that.

“I kind of came round after the scans. But after that I was in bed for six days straight.

“I couldn’t cope with daylight, couldn’t look at my phone, it was kind of tough, I was feeling sick. Thankfully I came out the other side of it.

“There have been worse head knocks than mine. Thankfully everything was in place.

“The head feels much better. It was obviously a difficult period, but the international break came at a good time, so I had time to recover.

“Obviously it wasn’t ideal what happened. In terms of the precautions, everyone did the right thing, got me into the best possible care, which was brilliant.

“It’s not nice having your family members rush down from the stands, you know? I like to put a scare into people! It wasn’t nice. Thankfully I’ve managed to recover."

Players who suffer concussion are required to undergo a SCAT5 before they are given the all-clear. The test evaluates factors such as symptoms, concentration, and recall to assess their condition, and players are familiarised with it during pre-season in the event a concussion occurs, with Boyle laughing as he confessed achieving a better score post-incident than he did last summer.

“It gives me a bigger headache, having to do a lot of remembering! But it’s just things like 10 words you have to remember, try to say it back, runs of numbers backwards, days of the week and months … it’s actually pretty simple.

"We do it [the tests] at the start of every season, just in case a concussion does occur. Actually, after the concussion, I beat the score that I had pre-season. That doesn't make sense, so it's a bit of a funny story to come of it! But thankfully I'm in the clear."

Defeat to Rangers coupled with Dundee beating St Johnstone dropped Hibs back to seventh place with only two games remaining until the Premiership split. Dundee now lead Nick Montgomery's side by a point, and themselves have a game in hand against Rangers at Dens Park.

Hibs will round off at home to St Johnstone and away to Motherwell, but are now well aware that even maximum points over the next two weeks may not be enough to guarantee a top-half finish. Having fallen behind to a James Tavernier volley on Saturday, Hibs equalised through Myziane Maolida in first-half stoppage time, only to immediately concede again as Cyriel Dessers crashed in a header from Todd Cantwell's cross.

Montgomery's side were unable to find a response, and Rabbi Matondo made the points safe for the league leaders with five minutes remaining. It was Hibs' first league defeat in seven, but it will now take slip-ups from Dundee for them to avoid a hugely disappointing end to the campaign. Boyle, though, says they will not concern themselves with anything other than getting back to winning ways.

"It's never nice losing games," he said. "It's a tough venue to come to - they are top of the table for a reason. We got back into the game but lost sloppy goals, we know that ourselves. We'll have to identify the mistakes. It's kind of repetitive, we keep saying we are losing sloppy goals. We need to tighten up. We came here unbeaten in six so hopefully we can get a run again before the split.

"We need to win the games, that's part and parcel of where we want to be. We can't be looking for other results. As long as win our games and look after ourselves, hopefully we can climb into the top six and have a strong end to the season."