The Neurological Consequences of Engaging in Australian Rules Football

Athletes engaging in collision sports, such as Australian rules football, are susceptible to a range of sports-related brain injuries such as sports-related concussions (SRC). SRC has been linked to various long-term neurological consequences, and its clinical management remains highly subjective. Therefore, more objective markers are needed to investigate these consequences, such as ocular motor (OM) assessment, advanced neuroimaging, and fluid biomarkers. This thesis identified acute and chronic cognitive OM changes, white matter damage and fluid biomarkers changes and contributes to the emerging literature that suggests engaging in Australian rules football is linked to neurological changes.