A leading expert on concussion in sport believes other codes should consider following the AFL's lead and prevent concussed players from returning to the field of play.

Andrew McIntosh is an Associate Professor in Biomechanics at the University of NSW's School of Safety Science and has conducted research into the biomechanics of injury and concussion in football since 1992.

Just last week the AFL introduced a controversial rule stating concussed players are forbidden from returning in the same game.

The NRL released a statement on Monday stating they were reviewing procedures to determine if they "should standardise game day procedures across all clubs when dealing with concussed players during a match".

Asked if he liked the AFL's move, McIntosh said: "I think in principle it's a good idea.

"I've seen in a lot of sports people who are definitely concussed, and often quite badly, go off the field and then they're brought back on and I can't imagine they would have recovered fully and be fit to play.

"Erring on the side of being conservative and cautious, I think it's a good thing.

"It is difficult immediately to diagnose that someone is concussed.

"There's a lot of symptoms that can be included under concussion - maybe some people get hit on the head and feel a bit dizzy or have a headache and they're not concussed.

"So you may be excluding a few people who are fit to play, but the majority of people probably are not fit to play shortly after they're concussed."

The AFL's move came after repeated incidents in recent years of players clearly affected by head knocks returning to the field.

An infamous incident occurred last season when Sydney's Jude Bolton was concussed twice in a match against Brisbane and continued playing, even though he was obviously unsteady as he attempted to take a free kick.

Swans doctor Nathan Gibbs conducted a study into concussion that concluded it was "grossly under-reported", but added 75 per cent of concussed players could safely continue playing in the same game.

On the weekend, Newcastle's Shannon McDonnell was concussed early in their NRL defeat to Manly and then played out the half, with Knights coach Mick Stone admitting afterwards the player "didn't know where he was" at halftime.

"Rightly people are concerned because unlike your knee or your ankle, your brain doesn't really recover particularly well from injury and particularly repeated injury," McIntosh said.

"And you can't replace it with anything.

"So I think those are some of the issues that are driving some of these changes."

McIntosh said it was difficult to make sweeping judgements on how players respond to head knocks, but felt the AFL was heading in the right direction.

He also believes tests should be conducted in the pre-season to set guidelines for players, which are then repeated after a concussion until a player returns to normal.

"I guess what will happen is it will be reviewed after a couple of years and they'll get input from players and doctors and if it seems to be working well, they'll continue it," he said.

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