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TORONTO — Looking back now, volleyball player Julia Hamer admits she feels like an “idiot” for not recognizing signs of a concussion.

This was back when she was playing for the junior national team at age 19, and was smacked in the head by a volleyball.

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It was the second blow in six weeks, the first coming from a dive into the bleachers that put her out of the game for three weeks.

After that first injury — in which she was diagnosed with a concussion — she suffered dizziness, confusion, chronic migraines and lost her sense of taste.

The second blow seemed mild by comparison, so she only took a few hours off before returning to the court, despite immediate nausea and dizziness.

“I was a little bit worried but at the same time I thought, ‘Oh, I’m probably fine. I couldn’t have got a concussion from that, it was just a hit in the head,”‘ Hamer remembers telling herself.

Five years later, the migraines persist, her sense of smell hasn’t fully returned and she’s not entirely sure she’s regained her full visual acuity.