The severity of your injury has no bearing on your risk of debilitating injury from further play. The intensity of your head aches is the only criteria that counts plus your history of years of full contact sports. When one injury causes such severe head aches or any other intense symptoms, that injury was a critical mass injury that needs to be taken very seriously.

Throughout sports, there are many situations where one critical mass injury has ended a career or other pursuit.

The big question is: Was this last injury your critical mass injury or will the next one be the one that you never recover from enough to live a full life.

If the mental task tests you have done so well on are the ImPACT Test or others like it, they are meaningless at determining your mental condition. They only test at a very surface level.

It is like getting a cast off a broken leg. Sure you can walk on the leg but the leg is not as strong as it was prior. Fortunately, a broken bone will eventually achieve full strength as the bone continues to strengthen as it is subjected to stress. The brain never even gets close to its prior condition.