A victim takes on concussions in soccer Reporting from Glendale, Ariz. - "I look completely normal, right?" a completely normal-looking Taylor Twellman says. It's something he asks often, and the response is always the same: nodding heads, words of affirmation, smiles. In reality, though, Twellman is far from normal. Three and a half years ago, the then-New England Revolution forward and former Major League Soccer most valuable player was accidentally punched in the jaw by Galaxy goalkeeper Steve Cronin while scoring on a header. Although Twellman didn't know it then - and wouldn't for months - he sustained a concussion on the play. And despite appearances, he hasn't been normal since. Twellman played the rest of the 2008 season, but he was forced to retire two games into the 2009 season because of health problems related to the concussion. He currently works as a soccer analyst for ESPN. "Now I'm behind the eight ball the rest of my life dealing with this" medical problem, says Twellman. I'd still be playing. I was 28 when I got hit. I had some time left in me. Once among the best-conditioned players in MLS, Twellman hasn't worked out in two years to keep his heart rate down. Once among the most energetic forwards in the league, Twellman drove less than a quarter of a mile from his hotel to breakfast on this morning because he feared walking over the rock-strewn driveway. Any other injury doesn't take your life away. This takes your life away," Twellman says over an iced coffee at an Arizona shopping mall. You get a knee [injury] ... you still can go to the movies. You still can play video games. You still can remember things. This brain injury of concussions takes your life away. We've got to stop it. How to prevent - and treat - concussions in soccer is something MLS has spent a great deal of time and money examining as it prepares to open its 17th season next weekend. The dangers - and damage - of concussions in football and ice hockey have been acknowledged for years. But several recent studies show soccer isn't far behind in potential medical dangers, whether for pros or young amateurs. Among high school sports, only football has a higher rate of concussions than girls' soccer, according to several studies. And the trauma can come in many ways - from heading the ball; from a collision; or, as in Twellman's case, by taking a hand, knee or elbow to the head. That has alarmed doctors, who worry that many soccer players and coaches don't fully appreciate the risks and don't understand the symptoms of what they say is becoming a public health crisis. "The real incidence of concussion is considerably higher than what's recognized on the [soccer] field," says Dr. Robert Cantu, a neurosurgeon and co-founder of the Sports Legacy Institute, a Boston-based group dedicated to the study, treatment and prevention of brain trauma in sports. Most people don't think of it as being a sport with high risk of concussion. Yet it actually is. Indeed, some studies have found that head injuries account for as many as one-fifth of all soccer injuries. And the National Institutes of Health believes the actual number may be much higher because many concussions go unrecognized. There's kind of a misconception out there that a concussion means someone was knocked out. And that's not the case," says Dr. Michael Lipton, director of radiology research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine at New York's Yeshiva University. Being hit numerous times - even though each time you get hit seems like nothing - can have a cumulative impact. That makes the seemingly harmless heading of a soccer ball a particularly dangerous activity. Lipton presented a very limited study last fall that used an advanced MRI-based imaging technique to show that heading a soccer ball more than 1,000 times a year, in games or practice, could cause symptoms of cognitive dysfunction similar to patients who have suffered a concussion. And while some have criticized the size and makeup of Lipton's test group - 38 amateur soccer players with an average age of 31 - many medical professionals say the results are alarming and demand further study. But the results were not surprising. Consider the case of Jeffrey Astle, who played for 10 seasons with West Bromwich Albion of the English Premier League, developing a reputation as a formidable header. Astle died of degenerative brain disease a decade ago at age 59, and the coroner ruled in an inquest that the repeated minor trauma of heading a soccer ball - damage consistent with the chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) seen in U.S. football players - caused his death.