Professional English rugby players will get concussion tests on the sidelines if they show signs of a head injury, under a new policy Premiership Rugby reports.

A joint venture between Premiership Rugby, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and the Rugby Players Association (RPA) has produced a new set of processes designed to optimise the treatment of concussion…

The Head Injury Assessment (HIA) process, formerly the Pitchside Suspected Concussion Assessment, will be used in all Aviva Premiership Rugby, LV= Cup and European matches this season, with cases of confirmed or suspected concussion resulting in the affected player being removed from the pitch.

The new policy also mandates review of video tape of possible head injury cases.

Concerns about concussion in the U.S. National Football League influenced the changes, according to the BBC.

The BBC reported that concussion were the most common injury in Premiership games in 2012-13, with 54 in matches and five in training. Overall there were 6.7 concussions per 1,000 hours played in English rugby in 2012-13, it said.

FIFA, the international governing body for soccer, is considering new concussion policies as well.

New Zealand plays France in a 2011 Rugby World Cup game. Photo by Jean-Francois Beausejour. Some rights reserved.