Eleven-year-old Stella Garvie was playing soccer when a ball — kicked from a couple metres away — hit her in the head and knocked her to the ground.

Unlike her elbow, her head didn’t hurt at all, but that didn’t last long.

“After a day I started getting really, really bad headaches,” she said.

It was weeks before Garvie, who plays rep soccer for Toronto High Park FC, was allowed back on the field.

“I just kept on not playing until all my headaches were gone,” she said.

It’s not easy sitting out, but it’s better than the alternative — returning to the beautiful game too soon and risking re-injury.

In an effort to help keep young, developing brains safe the Toronto Soccer Association has implemented a new concussion policy this season.

“We recognized that (concussions were) being downplayed by many of our coaches,” said Jacques Konig, the association’s vice president.

The association couldn’t find a written concussion policy within the sport so they reached out to the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital’s concussion centre to help them develop one.

A slow return to game play is a major tenet of the new policy, which is mandatory for the association’s 2,500 competitive league players and optional for the remainder of its 24,000 club recreational players.

It also requires coaches to report player concussions, making it easier for the association to track injuries.

A player can only return to game play once they’ve been cleared by a medical professional under the association’s new policy.

This season, which is about three weeks in, four concussions have been reported in players aged eight to 12— none from heading the ball, Konig noted.

In Ontario, 2,000 youth concussions from playing soccer were reported to emergency rooms between 2003 and 2013, a study published this year in the Journal of Pediatrics found. Overall, there were about 31,000 concussions from all sports, the study reported.

A concussion happens when a person’s head or body is hit with enough force that it causes the brain to move inside the skull, explained Dr. Nick Reed, a clinician scientist and co-director of Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital’s concussion centre.

“When that brain moves, it sheers against each other, there’s stretching and tearing and that’s what’s causing a concussion.”

After mandatory pre-season concussion training with the hospital, the association’s 150 competitive league coaches will now be responsible for taking any player they suspect may have a concussion out of the game.

“We don’t think it will stop concussions because that’s simply the nature of the play,” Konig said.

But the association is hoping the policy will raise awareness of concussions and ensure injured players return to soccer gradually.

“If a young athlete with a brain injury . . . goes back to a risky environment, where they could have another brain injury or another concussion before that first one has healed or recovered, that injury could be much more severe and potentially fatal,” said Reed.

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Now, when a player injures their head, coaches, parents, and other players know to watch for the signs and symptoms of a concussion.

These can range from headaches, nausea, and dizziness to fogginess, difficulty thinking, or feelings of sadness, anger, or anxiety.

The policy also outlines a series of “red flag” symptoms like worsening headaches, seizures, repeated vomiting, slurred speech or confusion.