The leading physiotherapy and sports science experts gathered at the Aspetar International Rehabilitation Conference in Doha.
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00:00As the football calendar continues to grow, injuries in the game are becoming increasingly common.
00:06The world's best medical experts are trying to combat the problem by using the latest trends and technology
00:12for treating and preventing muscle injuries in football.
00:20Hello and welcome to Football Now. On this week's episode of the show we're at the Khalifa Stadium in Doha
00:26to attend Aspartar Hospital's International Rehabilitation Conference.
00:31It's an event attended by some of the finest minds in the sports science industry
00:35as they collaborate and share ideas on how to treat and prevent muscular injuries in football.
00:41So let's hear a little bit more about it from Aspartar Chief Medical Officer Peter Doogh.
00:47Well basically Aspartar as a sports medicine hospital was responsible during the World Cup Q22 two years ago
00:55to tailor to the needs for all athletes. The 32 teams came over and with that we had some phenomenal homogeneous data
01:02on what we saw as injuries and how we could then maybe tackle them.
01:05So with that we saw that there were three basic main features that we could filter out of that data
01:12which is ACL injuries in the knee which is the ligament, hamstring injuries and ankle injury.
01:16So with that we looked into the future and we said how can we protect our football players better
01:22because we see that until today these three injuries are the number one, two, three.
01:27Well how can we do better than to bring the world together, focus on one topic which is the predominant one
01:32and then find ways to prevent injuries and to treat them better and bring the world together.
01:42I caught up with Fergal Kareem, a rehabilitation physiotherapist who told me just all about the latest advancements
01:48in identifying and diagnosing injuries including why MRI scans are crucial to pinpointing the exact location of an injury
01:56and predicting how long a player will be out on the sidelines.
02:00Yeah it's really interesting. It's probably the most important tool we have.
02:04A lot of the talks today have actually touched on how we're not able to pick out the exact injury location
02:08using clinical assessments. So by what we see on the bed alone we can't actually determine where the injury is
02:13and thus we can't really determine whether it's going to be in the most important area of the muscle, the intramuscular tendon.
02:18So it's really only by carrying out MRI and then interpreting that that we can set along our time to turn to play
02:23and identify what the risk of subsequent injury is.
02:26Also that allows us to communicate with the players, the coaches and say how long we think it's likely to take
02:31and then explain to them if we take a certain time point we think the risk of subsequent injury is probably X.
02:36And then it's really useful for us along the process too.
02:39We can carry out repeat MRIs that tells us where we are in the rehabilitation process
02:43and allows us to pick our exercises to maybe facilitate healing in some ways to actually improve what we see on MRI
02:49or maybe we can recognise actually we're pushing this one a little bit too hard and we need to take a step backwards.
02:53An MRI is really useful really in all aspects of the rehabilitation process.
02:57With the football calendar more busy than ever before we're seeing a clear increase in muscular injuries.
03:03According to the data collated by Aspartar Hospital, hamstring injuries are the most common, counting for 24% of all injuries.
03:11Not only that, the research shows there is a 69% chance of reoccurrence within two months of returning to play.
03:18And beyond that, 18% of players who suffer the injury once will do so again at some point during their careers.
03:25For every week you can wait, you're actually reducing your risk for re-injury about 5-10%.
03:31Of course there is a vulnerable period where everybody wants to get out there.
03:35The athlete wants to get there, the coach wants to get there and the doctor might say,
03:39hey, hold on, maybe you're at risk still.
03:42And are we only supposed to go back to sport when we have zero risk?
03:45No, never. We'll always take a risk.
03:47But I think the important thing is that we're able to say how big is the risk
03:51because then the player, the coach and others can take a decision.
03:55When it comes to muscle injury rehabilitation, players are eager to get back out onto the pitch as soon as they can.
04:01So is it possible to speed up muscle repair or are there no shortcuts on the road to recovery?
04:07The tricky part is that you shouldn't start with the rehabilitation in a too tough a way.
04:12Then you will risk of getting a re-injury.
04:15But in terms of regeneration, I don't think there will be any shortcut.
04:19There's a very delicate interplay between the muscle and the connective tissue.
04:23And if you stimulate, for instance, with growth hormone or with other stimulating factors,
04:29you will stimulate one part of it and thereby you might disturb the balance.
04:33To give people something extra to the training might psychologically help a little bit,
04:38but in many instances it's just, it might be harmful, but it's a waste of energy and time.
04:43It is the hard job to do it yourself and do the rehabilitation.
04:48Well, we've learned a little bit about the physical rehabilitation,
04:51but a key part in helping your body heal also comes in what you eat.
04:55We spoke to Aspartar's leading dietician, Nelda Nader,
04:59to get the latest on how nutrition can contribute to injury recovery.
05:03In terms of the Aspartar way, we have six stages of rehabilitation.
05:07The first one starts with the first stage of injury.
05:10And this is where we apply the basic nutritional strategies,
05:13which is like a high fiber diet, high antioxidant meal plan, high phytochemical intake.
05:18So this is where we pay attention to specific minerals and micronutrients.
05:22Then when they start increasing the loads, these are at the stages two and three.
05:27This is where we are applying specifically the sports nutrition strategies
05:31and where we discuss protein periodization, we discuss energy availability
05:36and we add the specific sports supplements and the ergogenic aids.
05:40It's been a fantastic weekend in Doha as we've learned all about the latest ways
05:45medical professionals are trying to treat and prevent muscular injuries in football.
05:50That's all we've got time for here from the Khalifa International Stadium.
05:54We'll see you next time. Bye for now.