Why Does My Neck Hurt After a Concussion or Whiplash?

How Common Is Neck Pain After a Concussion?

In 2,163 concussions in college athletes, nearly half came with new or worse neck pain. Neck pain was linked to how the injury happened, what the athlete collided with, the athlete's sex (more often in women) and confusion right after the injury (King, 2024). That study covered athletes, so it can't tell you how often the same thing happens after a car crash or a fall at home.

Can You Have Whiplash and a Concussion at Once?

The same can happen outside sport: a car accident can injure the brain and sprain the neck. Many people with blurry vision, dizziness, headaches or brain fog don't connect those symptoms to their neck, and the clinic calls that reasonable. Neck problems can produce headaches, dizziness and thinking symptoms that look like post-concussion syndrome, as the neck section of post-concussion syndrome treatment explains. One patient's case shows how our team separated the neck's part in the dizziness from the inner ear's.

Why Can Neck Problems Last After a Concussion?

The clinic's video describes the neck's joint signals telling the brain where your head is in space, and how those signals work with the balance and visual systems. In a small study, 25 people about 5 months after a concussion on average had few symptoms left but were measurably worse than their peers at returning the head to a target, a test of joint position error (Kinney, 2024). In that study's 15 people with pain on testing, the error was larger still and the lower neck joints moved less (Kinney, 2024).

In 38 healthy young adults with no neck injury, holding the chin down toward the chest for 10 minutes made head repositioning less accurate and delayed when the neck muscles switched on ahead of a quick arm movement (Mousavi-Khatir, 2018). That study didn't test people with a concussion or whiplash.

In our team's view, a neck that's off is at a minimum not helping a brain that's recovering from injury, and it can add to dizziness, vision trouble and brain fog.

Peers After concussion

Replay

How Long Does Neck Pain Last After a Concussion?

In the college athlete study, those with new or worse neck pain had about 11 days of symptoms versus about 9 and were less likely to be symptom-free within a week (King, 2024). In 108 people aged 15 to 30 with high levels of post-concussion symptoms 2 to 6 months after a blow to the head, neck movement was slightly lower than in a published healthy reference group, mostly because of a small subset of patients, and how far the neck could turn didn't track how severe the symptoms were (Stenbro, 2025). Range of motion is one part of the picture, and position sense can be off in people with few symptoms left (Kinney, 2024).

Our team's approach to rest and the return to activity is in post-concussion syndrome treatment.

What Does a Neck Exam After a Concussion Check?

One research group calls screening the neck for joint mobility and joint position error a reasonable recommendation after a concussion (Kinney, 2024). Another suggests a systematic neck exam after a mild brain injury and notes that more research is needed before it becomes routine (Stenbro, 2025); that study measured neck range of motion and tenderness in the muscles around the head. Joint position error is how far, in centimeters, your head lands from center when you return it to a target (Kinney, 2024).

The neck as a contributor to symptoms more broadly is the subject of Your Neck Might Be Part of the Problem. Instability at the top of the neck is a separate question, with its own page on craniocervical instability.

Neck Pain After a Concussion: FAQ