When Carlton ruckman Marc Pittonet went down in a tackle and his head hit the turf, Blues officials began fearing for his safety.

However, after tests with the Carlton medical staff, Pittonet was given the green light on Wednesday to continue pre-season training, per The Herald Sun.

Concussions have been one of the biggest talking points in the AFL over the past few years, with the late Shane Tuck the latest former AFL player to be diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.

As a result of this discovery, the AFL have enforced tighter rules on concussions, sidelining players for 10 days, as opposed to the seven that was in place last season.

Pittonet was in a drill with fellow ruckman Tom De Koning at Carlton’s Wednesday session when his team mate laid the tackle with certainly no malice behind it.

The 24-year old was then left on the ground with very little movement for a few moments, before very slowly getting up to his feet to be tended to the trainers.

The two big men are fighting for Carlton’s number one ruck spot this year after Matthew Kreuzer’s retirement at the end of the 2020 season.

Pittonet, having played 13 games in his first season at Carlton in 2020, firms as the favourite to start in the centre in 2021.

But don’t discount De Koning, who played seven games himself in 2020 and showed plenty of promising signs during the season to suggest he may get a good run of it in 2021.