It's not until you get fairly close to Dean Folino's face that two small bolt holes on either side of his forehead become apparent. He turns around to reveal a matching pair of scars on the back of his skull where the hair no longer grows.
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"It wasn't when they screwed them in that hurt the most," he says, describing the way the halo brace was drilled into his skull. "It was taking them out three months later."
Nearly a year ago, Mr Folino hit his head on the bottom of a friend's backyard pool in Chifley. Itcrushed his C1 and C2 vertebrae, and he found himself floating face down, unable to move his arms and with blood trickling out of his head. But now Mr Folino, 27, has regained most of his movement.
According to ACT Health records, he is one of more than 3600 Canberrans who were treated for head and neck injuries in 2014. They are part of a growing number around Australia, and local and international experts are worried.
Australian research into concussion and traumatic head injuries is increasingly pointing to links between blows to the head and conditions such as Alzheimer's in later life. And Victorian research suggests as few as 10 per cent of all concussions are being properly assessed and treated, with many sufferers unaware of the health risks.
ACT junior rugby league president Martin Sullivan said his sport had been at the forefront of recognising the risk of head injuries. Improvements to training for coaches, better education about tackling techniques and strict protocols about treatment had made it much safer for young players. But there were still parents who were willing to let their children go back into a game after a head knock.
"It's our job to say no - those parents don't understand that if a child gets another knock in that same area, within two to three weeks they have a 70 per cent chance of a serious or potentially fatal injury. It's that serious and we take it very seriously," Mr Sullivan said.
Head injuries to high-profile sportsmen such as cricketer Phillip Hughes and footballer Sam Burgess have attracted plenty of attention. But former Wallaby and ACT Brumbies winger Clyde Rathbone and others believe there could be an even greater issue with repeated, low-level head knocks.
Experts agree. Research at the Melbourne Brain Centre shows that build-ups in the brains of concussion sufferers can be similar to the brains of Alzheimer's sufferers.
"I think the research is becoming increasingly damning for contact sports - the data speaks for itself," Rathbone said.
"There is growing awareness, but like anything it starts off as a trickle. When we look upon contact sport in 50 years, people will ask, 'Why were we playing like that?'. I'd take a punt and say in 100 years all contact sport will have fizzled out."
