An inside view: Who should lead rehabilitation in elite teams? Sports physios or rehab?

Podcast titles are limited to 100 characters; the ideal title would have been…”Working as a multidisciplinary team in elite sport – the role of physiotherapy, strength and conditioning teams, medical folks, soft tissue therapists, exercise rehabilitators etc.”. A leading elite team physiotherapist (Andrew Wallis, PT) and a head of sports science/conditioning (Darren Burgess, PhD) provide you the inside view from within two elite teams. And they have international experience before their current jobs. You’ll hear WHO these teams include on the sports medicine payroll. Our hosts (Ebonie Rio, David Opar) ask whose head would be on the chopping block if there was a rash of hamstring strains after a vigorous pre-season training. Is one hamstring injury recurrence among 10 players worth 9 players coming back a week early? What about sending players to the funky treatment’ clinician – flying for the miracle cure? Apologies for a bit of shuffling noise in Andrew’s first two answers but it disappears. Well worth pushing through that distraction (we are working on trying to get sound quality like in Jack Chew’s podcasts!). Confident you’ll love this inside view! Darren Burgess is High Performance Manager at Port Adelaide Football (AFL) Club. Darren was Head of Fitness and Conditioning at Liverpool Football Club. Darren completed his PhD in movement analysis of AFL and Soccer in 2012. http://www.portadelaidefc.com.au/ Andrew Wallis is head physiotherapist at the St Kilda Football Club and has been there for the last 8 years. He has a special interest in Hip and Groin pathology and consults privately at Melbourne Orthopaedic Group and Malvern Sports Medicine Centre. http://www.saints.com.au/ Relevant papers: Seasonal Training Load Quantification in Elite English Premier League Soccer Players. Malone JJ, Di Michele R, Morgans R, Burgess D, Morton JP, Drust B. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2014 Nov 13. [Epub ahead of print] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25393111 Countermovement jump performance is not affected during an in-season training microcycle in elite youth soccer players. Malone JJ, Murtagh CF, Morgans R, Burgess DJ, Morton JP, Drust B. J Strength Cond Res. 2015 Mar;29(3):752-7. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000701. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25226317 Recurrent hamstring muscle injury: applying the limited evidence in the professional football setting with a seven-point programme. Brukner P, Nealon A, Morgan C, Burgess D, Dunn A.

Br J Sports Med. 2014 Jun;48(11):929-38. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2012-091400. http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/48/11/929.long