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@JonoMarshall
Ok, so I retract everything I ever said about an eye socket being able to take an impact from a mallet or ball.
Bidou was seriously hurt this weekend and fractured his eye socket causing blood to put pressure on the back of his eye, this is a very serious injury and could have easily been an exploded eyeball, he is unlikely to regain full sight in his eye.
I talked with the Primary Ambulance guys about it (they've done a few tournaments now) and they said that it's madness not to play with some sort of face protection when playing polo (they were also shocked to learn that the eye socket was fractured).
I find it fairly depressing to admit that I don't think any rule change (or similar) will be any kind of barrier to future incidents occurring. I think high sticking/leaning in/whatever has become commonplace and I think it's important that face cages become a standard piece of safety equipment for bike polo.
Scars/capped teeth are one thing, losing your sight is something else, shit.