Friday Freebie; The Importance Of Protecting Your Players

An in-depth look at why physio cover is hard to come by

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Ok, on with tonight’s topic. This one has been a couple of weeks in the making but something I feel needs to be covered and addressed. It’s an issue I think will become more evident and a concern over the next couple of years.

Going back just a few weeks I noticed a little bit of a trend, clubs putting out there on Twitter/X the need for filling the physiotherapist role. Now if you look at the timeline of my first sentence, we’re already into the season when these tweets were coming out.

Not too odd you might think, but I casted my mind back and it’s not something I’d seen regularly once a season had begun, something you expect to see during the summer months in preparation.

So then the mind goes into research mode to find out why I’d seen more than I expected to and also to see if this could potentially be a bigger issues as seasons move on.

Luckily enough I have a couple of physio friends, Ellie-Mae Watson currently at Whitehawk and Ally Maloney at Cray Wanderers, who I sought advice and details from along with their thoughts on the reasons why.

Ellie has her own business called Elite Muscle Welfare whilst Ally works within the NHS but both with a love and passion for football and treatment. For Ellie she works from home in Eastbourne but hires a gym and a room from a clinic in Seaford.

Over the summer she moved from Seaford Town in the Southern Combination to Whitehawk in the Isthmian Premier League, whilst launching a new partnership that I featured on www.thesnlf.co.uk with up to six clubs currently struggling to find matchday cover and weekday recovering sessions.

Both agreed that there are fairly substantial list of reasons why there is a lack of cover to go around, and if you think about it yourself the role is becoming a predominantly female position within clubs across the game.

The first area to look at is cost of qualifications and training. There is, full stop, no funding for anyone wanting to get into the role across the game. For a section which is vitally important in looking after and understanding player welfare it’s staggering, but also something I wasn’t surprised to hear either.

We are all well aware the FA pay lip service to a lot of areas within the game and this clearly appears to be another one of those. To me there should be a mandate from the governing body that it’s a pre-requisite to start the season every club should have a qualified person in that role and be asked to provide the details to be checked against a database.

And I’ll come to the part of a coach being able to ‘named’ as the qualified person in a moment. The cost of serious level qualifications should be accessible for a grant or some kind of funding, encourage not discourage should be the motto.

The FA Level 1 which is the very basic is £30 which of course sounds fine. Every coach who has completed their equivalent in coaching should have that included, but it’s pretty pointless when it comes to treating football injuries.

Level 2 comes in at £200 whilst Level 3 is a one day course costing over £400. To get to a really good level at number 4 is a two day course around £700 plus overnight stays and fuel to get there. That also has to be renewed every three years at a cost to the person themselves the same amount over, a clear indication that for many it’s out of reach without outside help.

Step 4 which covers the Southern, Northern and Isthmian Leagues are required to have a Level 3 qualified physio minimum, that’s around 180 clubs in need of 180 physios just there alone.

Now as I mentioned above a coach can be the stand in physio as so to speak, but as a coach you want to do that part surely and not be concerned at needing to treat players with injuries you aren’t at all qualified to deal with.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see that put off a lot of coaches getting into the game to be trusted with that particular section of the sideline. But actually how many coaches lower down the pyramid actually do have even the basic coaching qualifications?

Pay is also a massive issue. This might cause a few divided opinions but clubs do not want to pay a huge amount, they want to pay the goalscoring striker more or the clean sheet keeping defender, but is the safety of those players any less important?

Let’s be clear there, these guys put in the hours on a matchday, hours before for muscle rubs and the like, the same training sessions of a week  but don’t get the financial rewards? Doesn’t seem right or fair does it? That in itself could be a single one reason not to get involved in the role, we ask for a fair salary for a fair day’s work, this is work not a hobby for these guys and girls.

When you break it down to hourly rates, it’s pay for peanuts, what do you think the response would be if some actually realised the hours worked versus pay for that time?

That leads to a question of how much time and commitment you think the role is worth despite wanting to always do your best. The growth of career paths also lead many away from the game. Ellie herself with her own business can easily earn far more per hour than being a football physio, I know of others who have walked away from the game for that very same reason.

Many feel undermined and undervalued, some of that down to gender and the fact a manager wants all his players on the pitch despite warnings at times they’re not fit to last a full game.

A lack of support from within clubs, from outside clubs, another feeling there isn’t enough to keep them going in the game and it can be a lonely existence if you’re in a role of one and not a department of a few.

The final point is abusive behaviour. We’ve all heard it for female physios, female match officials at games. Think here though, how many times do you see a male physio running onto the pitch? The percentage levels are much lower than ever from where I view, is that a combination of all of the above or even a few reasons why male counterparts also walk away from the game? It can take a strong character to be in a dressing room of ego’s and stand your ground.

After speaking to Ellie I had a great chat with Ally at Cray Wanderers first ever home game at Flamingo Park. She’s come across a lot of what I’ve talked about above, but her ideal is she can either moan about it all or be a part of the solution.

No surprise to those of you who know Ally she’s chosen the latter and I’m delighted to help in any way I can. Along with RJ Sports Therapies, Ally is launching a support network for therapists and anyone interested, working in non-league football.

The project will include legal advice, an advice forum and an education podcast/webinar to help grow the workforce. Everyone is being encouraged to share topics and more is to come in the following weeks so if you’re a non-league physio reading this, get in touch!

You can find both girls on Twitter/X, Ellie is @Emusclewelfare and Ally is @Little_Physio.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this different read on an important part of the game but very vital to the safety of those stepping onto the pitch. Please feel free to ‘buy me a coffee’ or make a donation here.