A RULE allowing clubs to temporarily use a substitute while a player is being assessed for concussion could be introduced for this year's home and away season.

AFL Medical Director Peter Harcourt, who spoke at the release of the annual injury survey on Wednesday, confirmed a submission is currently before the rules committee.

The submission does not call for the addition of a second substitute to each club's interchange bench for use in such circumstances.

Rather, it says clubs should be given the option to call upon their existing sub.

"The AFL, internally, on the recommendation of the AFL Medical Officers' Association, is looking at activating the substitution in order to take the pressure off the team so that the doctors can go about their assessment (without so much pressure)," Harcourt said.

"Hopefully it will be considered before the start of the season."

After the Laws of the Game committee meeting on Wednesday, the AFL confirmed the Commission would consider whether a sub can be used while a concussed player is assessed. The Commission's next scheduled meeting is in the week starting on March 18.

Harcourt's push to modify the substitute rules should please Carlton coach Mick Malthouse, who last week called for clubs to be allowed to temporarily use their sub in such cases.

"… if there is going to be new rules implemented, and we take a player off for 10-15 minutes [for] testing, we've got to have the capacity to put a player on for that 10 to 15 minutes," Malthouse said.

"Either a sub or a second sub. Then we're starting to get somewhere."

The number of games missed by players due to concussion has risen in recent years, and is tipped to rise again in the future.

"That would reflect not an increased number of head injuries but a much more cautious and conservative approach," AFL Medical Officers' Association president Dr Hugh Seward stated.

The AFL is hosting a two-day concussion conference at Etihad Stadium on March 20 and 21.

The Concussion in Sport conference will include representatives from a range of sports and be run in conjunction with rugby league and rugby union, but will be open to any sporting group who needs to deal with concussion.

It will be held one week after the release of new guidelines on the management of concussion in sport that are being formulated as a result of the 2012 Zurich International Consensus Conference on Concussion in Sport held in November.