Brain health being so precious, I hope San Diego’s Chris Olave gets the best predictive medical information about the five documented brain injuries he now has suffered in football.

It would be appropriate, too, if Olave receives wise counsel on what activities beyond professional football could suit his talents.

The more information Olave has, the better decision the 24-year-old graduate of Mission Hills High School in San Marcos can make about whether he should continue to play in the NFL.

The collision Sunday that dealt Olave a traumatic brain injury resembled a car crash.

As the 6-foot-½, 187-pound receiver ran a deep-in route and reached high to catch an errant pass from New Orleans Saints quarterback Derek Carr, a defender for the Carolina Panthers slammed into him.

Olave crumpled to the ground and barely moved until after medics got to him and fastened him to a backboard. Later Sunday, he was cleared to check out of a Charlotte hospital.

“It appears he was knocked out on the hit, then his head bounced unprotected off the ground,” nueroscientist Chris Nowinski of the Concussion Legacy Foundation posted to social media.

“Could be the end of his season,” former NFL team physician David Chao wrote on Sports Injury Central.

Might it be the end of his career?

I would not presume to tell Olave what he should decide.

One might assume that for awhile now, Olave has received the best medical information, given the frequency of his brain injuries and an NFL player or major-college player’s access to the best expertise brain science has to offer.

He’s been put into the multi-billion-dollar league’s concussion protocol four times in his three-year career and has missed NFL two games with concussions. Counting a concussion he suffered with Ohio State, he’s sustained five official brain injuries since October 2020.

Why does this keep happening to Olave?

That’s too complicated for anyone to know exactly.

On the one hand, he’s well-equipped to play football and to play it very well.

Lithe, quick, brave and fast, Olave dominated San Diego County competition in his only season with Mission Hills after his dad’s transfer to Camp Pendleton led to a season without football for Chris, a San Ysidro native who began his prep career at Chula Vista’s Eastlake High School.

Olave then starred at Ohio State, inducing the Saints to trade up and draft him 11th overall in 2022.

He acclimated fast to the NFL and exceeded 1,000 receiving yards in each of his first two seasons, scoring nine touchdowns in the 31 games. This season he has a career-best catch-rate of 72.1 percent.

Yet, some successful players’ physiology can leave them more susceptible to brain injuries. To some extent, this seems true of Tua Tagovailoa. The Dolphins quarterback, who returned last week from his third documented NFL concussion, suffered numerous injuries while in college at Alabama.

Several other variables come into play.

An overlooked one is the aptitude of the players team.

Last year I wrote Olave wouldve been better off physically, not just competitively, if the Chargers had drafted him and paired him with Justin Herbert.

Herbert, smart, agile, 6-foot-6, accurate and strong-armed, stretches the field and throws receivers into harm’s way less often than many QBs. Because he’s missed no games in four of his five NFL seasons, he has provided continuity to receivers that can further reduce severe hazards.

An inconvenient truth to the NFL draft is that an incoming player has no say where hell begin his career and therefore can be thrust into situations that pose greater risk of injury.

The Saints weren’t a great option for any receiver when Olave joined them.

In his rookie year Olave had to play with three different quarterbacks. Carr became his fourth QB last year. Two more knuckleballs have come this season: a new offensive system set up for yards after the catch, and an injury to Carr that put rookie Spencer Rattler behind center.

Affecting a players risk profile as well can be the frequency and severity of head trauma.

Chao noted that Olaves exit Sunday came one week after hed taken a big hit to the head and neck area, resulting in a medical check-up.

Nowinski and Chao pointed out Olave was previously concussed on Oct. 13.

“You have to wonder if this TBI (traumatic brain injury),” Nowinski wrote of Sunday’s injury, “was made worse because he may not have been physiologically recovered from the first. Concussion clearance is based on symptomatic and functional recovery, but neuron recovery takes longer.”

Reminder: Football cant be made safe. Less hazardous, yes.

One hopes Olave and his inner circle have succeeded at managing the money he has earned.

By becoming one of 32 players in his draft class taken in the first round, Olave commanded a much more lucrative first contract — $19.2 million spread across four years — and one that was guaranteed.