Injury Report

Montreal Impact's Davy Arnaud vexed by concussion symptoms: "It takes time, and it's the hardest part"

Montreal Impact captain Davy Arnaud

MONTREAL – The wait drags on for Davy Arnaud.


The Montreal Impact captain is again sitting out training this week while struggling with  concussion-like symptoms, and he said he has no idea when he’ll be able to re-join his teammates, who saw him go down injured in the 48th minute of their 6-0 win over Toronto FC in the Amway Canadian Championship on May 1.


Arnaud tries to keep a smile on his face, but the powerlessness ticks him off.


READ: How does a player get cleared to return after suffering a concussion?

“I told our trainers that I was at the point where, if they would tell me to wear my underwear on my head to bed, I’ll do it if it makes me better,” Arnaud told reporters on Tuesday. “Anything to make it better, but there’s not a ton you can do.


"It just takes time, and it’s the hardest part because as a player, when you have a knock, you’re used to have some pain, but you can play through it and there are things you can do to make it better. It’s a little different.”


The manner in which Arnaud sustained the injury was unusual, too. Arnaud hit the turf after heading TFC midfielder Luis Silva's corner kick clear. A ball that has been played a zillion times “caught me in the right spot,” Arnaud said.


“I thought maybe I’d been elbowed, or I’d gone head-to-head, and I didn’t remember exactly what had happened,” he recalled. “Then I saw it, and I saw it was the ball. I just took it, it seemed, off the top of my head. There have been some plays in the past where similar things have happened – you just take it off the top of the head and it stuns you for a little bit, you don’t feel completely right for a while, but nothing of that magnitude, I guess.”


READ: Montreal welcome break to work on set plays

Arnaud came out of the game in the 52nd minute of the Canadian Championship match.


“[The symptoms] seem, in the past few days, to have been improving and hopefully, if it continues that way, I can start doing stuff again,” Arnaud said.