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UEFA football doctor workshop in Budapest

The third UEFA Football Doctor Education Programme (FDEP) workshop takes place in Budapest this week, aims including the improvement of medical treatment across Europe.

Practical sessions at a previous UEFA Football Doctor Programme workshop in Vienna
Practical sessions at a previous UEFA Football Doctor Programme workshop in Vienna ©Getty Images

UEFA's role as custodian of the game in Europe extends beyond the pitch, and even as far as medical matters. The European body's ambitious initiative to improve football medical treatment in Europe, establish minimum medical standards and educate team doctors in each of its 54 associations will be strengthened by the third UEFA Football Doctor Education Programme (FDEP) workshop, which takes place in Budapest on Tuesday and Wednesday.

At the three-day course, at least one doctor from each UEFA national association will attend an extensive training workshop. Some 36 of the doctors are completing the third stage of a three-part course; once they have done so, they will become the first group to become UEFA-trained football doctors.

The FDEP provides education and instruction in the essential role of the modern football doctor. The Budapest course directors are Ian Beasley, the English Football Association (FA) team doctor and Tim Meyer, the German Football Association (DFB) team doctor, and nine expert speakers will make presentations on a variety of topics ranging from monitoring fatigue and recovery to concussion.

UEFA Medical Committee vice-chairman and UEFA Injury Study leader Professor Jan Ekstrand will kick off the workshop with a detailed talk on injury prevention, and his findings that traditional injury prevention methods may not be sufficient at elite level. Like all studies presented, the talk uses the latest elite club data which comes from UEFA's hugely successful and long-running Elite Club Injury Study.

In addition to sessions on injury rehabilitation and psychology, the doctors will also learn about fatigue and recovery in football from Grégory Dupont, head of sports science at LOSC Lille, while Ron Maughan, emeritus professor of sport and exercise nutrition, will give a presentation on football nutrition.

As well as having introduced a concussion protocol for its competitions last September, UEFA has long been at the forefront of funding, commissioning and supporting medical research into concussion in football.

UEFA has commissioned three studies on concussion in recent years. The first investigated the prevalence of concussion. The second – by Professor Anna Nordström, published in September and funded by UEFA – showed that concussion increases the risk of subsequent injury by about 50% in elite male footballers. UEFA has now commissioned a further study from Professor Nordström, which will examine the ImPact concussion evaluation system.

At the Budapest workshop, Dr Nina Feddermann will present a study on the screening, diagnosis and management of head injuries and concussion.

The doctors will also learn about anti-doping, match and tournament preparation and nutritional supplements during the three-day workshop. The participants will then undergo a rigorous testing process at the end of the workshop to evaluate the skills and knowledge obtained.

This evaluation is essential because, as well as learning key skills, one of the unique aspects of the FDEP is that all participants are taught how to 'cascade' their own version of the course for doctors in their own country. It ensures that only those participants who demonstrate competence in the topic area are authorised to pass those skills and knowledge on to their peers at a cascaded workshop.

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