Page-2 | Sports head and heart injuries can be underestimated | Professional | NewJerseyNewsroom.com -- Your State. Your News.

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Research at the University of North Carolina, dozens of football players have died from heatstroke since the mid 1990s. More than 30 of them were high school athletes. The old school mentality of "suck it up, you are fine," can be dangerous, especially for student athletes.

Last month, 23-year-old Fabrice Muamba of English Premier League’s Bolton FC went into cardiac arrest during the first half of a soccer match against Tottenham FC. The young soccer star is lucky to have survived. Sevilla's Antonio Puerta, who died after suffering a heart attack during a Spanish League match in 2007, and Cameroon soccer star Marc-Vivien Foe, who died while playing in a match against Colombia in 2003, were not as fortunate.

In the U.S., Emily Adamczak, a high school freshman at Akron Central died from cardiac arrest on the soccer field. Nearly five minutes had passed before she was given CPR by a bystander. Swifter response might have saved her.

Perhaps the most famous case of heart failure occurred when Reggie Lewis of Boston Celtics dropped dead on the court during an off-season practice. He was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a fairly common heart condition.

Sports organizations have a responsibility to safeguard the health of their players. Chief among them are head and heart injuries. Unlike sprains and breaks, we cannot always see what has happened, which makes the injuries that much more dangerous. With state of the art technology and superlative health services at our fingertips, isn’t it time we implement a system to prevent tragedies through a process of prescreening athletes' health and assuring the best health assistance is available before taking the field?

Any athlete -- amateur or professional -- should have regular physicals that include head and heart tests.

Having been a coach for a long time, I've seen the effects of head injuries on players who returned to action to quickly. As a father whose son has experienced a serious concussion, I am an advocate of baseline testing followed by a procedure that determines when it is safe to return to action.

Parents must be aware of the effects of head trauma and must take advantage of the latest advances in testing for concussions. They also must heed the advice of experts before allowing their children to compete again. When it comes to brain injuries, it's always better to be safe than sorry.

A native of Newark, Jed Hughes is Vice Chair of Korn/Ferry and the leader of the executive search firm's Global Sports Practice. Among his high profile placements are Mark Murphy, CEO of the Green Bay Packers; Larry Scott, Commissioner of the Pac-12 Conference; and Brady Hoke, head coach of the Michigan Wolverines. Earlier in his career, Mr. Hughes coached for two decades in professional and intercollegiate football where he served under five Hall of Fame coaches: Bo Schembechler (Michigan), Chuck Noll (Pittsburgh Steelers), Bud Grant (Minnesota Vikings), John Ralston (Stanford) and Terry Donahue (UCLA).

Visit KornFerry.com or follow him on Twitter @jedhughesKF.