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Former All Blacks captain Sam Cane has signed on as an ambassador for Hit Kit - a rapid response concussion kit created by Helen Tufui (inset). Photos / Getty Images, Supplied Former All Blacks captain Sam Cane has signed on as an ambassador for Hit Kit - a rapid response concussion kit created by Helen Tufui (inset). Photos / Getty Images, Supplied Sam Cane once removed himself from a test match against Australia after being involved in a head clash. The 105-match All Blacks flanker came away from the collision feeling a bit dazed before his vision started to become impacted. Over the next few minutes it started to get worse andwhen the game was halted for a scrum, Cane knew what needed to be done. “I just got to a scrum and said to the referee, ‘I’m going to have to go off’,” Cane recalled to the Herald. “He sort of looked at me like ‘what do you mean?’ and I just said ‘oh, no, I’m no good. I can’t be running around when vision in one of my eyes isn’t working’ and it was slowly getting worse, too. “People will be different, but I suppose the biggest thing is being courageous enough to say ‘I’m not alright.’ Like, I could have carried on that day for sure, but maybe at my own detriment or, say, the team’s. I wouldn’t have wanted to catch a pass from that side. When you’ve got a guy on the bench who’s raring to go and 100% that makes sense to get them on.” It’s a part of the game the 34-year-old pays the utmost respect to. Rugby is known for its physicality and heavy collisions, and with that comes the risk of injuries and head knocks. Over the course of his career, Cane has learnt plenty about concussion and he has become a strong, albeit “low-key” advocate for safety in that area. Now, he’s joined Helen Tufui, founder of the Headache Clinic, as an ambassador for Hit Kit, a rapid response concussion kit designed to help athletes, coaches, parents and sporting organisations respond quickly and confidently after a head knock. The Hit Kit includes several elements, with information on concussions, how to identify the severity of them and how to appropriately manage them, a miniature wound kit for supporting recovery, with an instant ice pack to reduce inflammation, as well as six sachets of a rapid absorption supplement. Sam Cane once removed himself from a test match against Australia after being involved in a head clash. Photo / Photosport Tufui, who developed the kit with SleepDrops founder Kirsten Taylor, told the Heraldthat while the evidence around supplementation and concussion was still emerging, magnesium levels often decreased in the days following a concussion, so the kits included sachets to get the nutrients into a patient’s system early. Having seen Tufui for treatment on his neck through his rugby career, Cane sent her a message of support after seeing information about Hit Kit on social media. He was quick to sign on as an ambassador, and said this was the sort of thing the community game was screaming out for. ACC statistics show, as of June 30, there were 7094 new sport-related concussion claims in New Zealand so far this year, with a total of 8847 active claims and active costs of $41.5m. There were 2333 claims from rugby, with cycling being the next highest sport with 647 claims. “We’re super lucky at the professional level; a couple of physios, a doctor on hand. We have to be able to check in every day, we’ve got some protocols to follow at any stage, if we’re not right then we can take a step back, but we also don’t have the challenge of juggling a job because the job’s footy,” Cane said. “It’s a little bit different, I imagine – I don’t want to pretend I’m in touch with the community game as well as a lot of people because I’m not – but if someone takes a knock on Saturday, a lot of them would have to go to work on Monday and that could be the worst thing. Each Hit Kit includes several information cards, including the red flags to look out for, a small first aid and ice pack, and a rapid absorption supplement designed specifically for the package. “Everything’s different, everyone’s different, but I just love how simple this Hit Kit is because it’s got three cards in it, one for each day, and tells you what you should be doing, which gives yourself the best chance of recovery. It’s like any injury, same as if you pull your calf muscle badly, if you look after it initially for those first three to seven days then you set yourselves up to make a really good recovery, but if you went out there and started jogging around on it and using it initially, then you’d sort of reinjure that calf. “It’s no different to the brain. If you overuse it early following a concussion, then you can take a few steps backwards. So, it’s not just the community game but also kids’ level, high schools, even just schools in general, it’d be a great kit for families or schools to have up there by the first aid kit in case something, in case you ever needed to rip it out.” Cane has seen plenty of evolution in the way concussions are dealt with throughout his professional rugby career. He said while there were protocols in place when he first began in the professional space, they could be completed in about five days which meant athletes could play again the following weekend. Now, a concussion is generally met with a mandatory 11-day stand-down period. “It’s no one’s fault, those were just where things were at that stage,” he said of protocols early in his career. “You only have to go back a further 15 years from that and they were almost non-existent. I feel lucky that I’ve been involved in an era where it’s continued to improve.” Cane also credited the approach to head knocks taken within the professional game in New Zealand, noting that he had never felt pressured to play by coaches, management or physios, and he couldn’t think of a single instance where someone had been cleared to return before they were ready from such an injury. “I’ve seen some close friends over the years who have had to retire from head knocks but, look, that’s the risk we also take playing the game,” he said. “We know there’s a chance that happens and sometimes it can be unlucky, you know it’s not a cumulative blow, it’s just a one-off at the wrong place, wrong time, someone comes off worse than another. “But in terms of the overall care, I think it’s always been really good.” In Cane’s own playing career, he has spent the past couple of years plying his trade in Japan for Suntory Sungoliath, opting to move into a new stage of his life for more family time after a long tenure at the top level in New Zealand. Sam Cane currently plays his rugby with Suntory Sungoliath in Japan. Photo / AFP It’s a move that he has enjoyed, both on and off the field, with Suntory among the stronger teams in the Japanese competition while he has enjoyed a bit more time out of the spotlight. “It’s probably one of the things I didn’t really take into account when making the decision, but it’s certainly something that’s been quite refreshing,” he said. “Even though rugby’s growing over there and the fanbase that do follow it are really loyal and passionate, it’s still very much a minority sport, so whatever happens on game day you don’t hear about it on your socials, you don’t read about it, you can completely forget about it on Sunday until you turn back up to work on Monday and look into it. “[There are also] minimal media commitments over there too and it all has to be done via translation obviously, so yeah, like I said, I didn’t really take those things into account when making the decision, but it has been quite refreshing for sure.”