Ali Emery – Sport Rehab & Medical Provision in UK Ice Hockey – Injury Rehab Network

The September Injury Rehab Network with BASRaT featured a presentation from Ali Emery, Senior Lecturer in Sports Rehabilitation at St Mary’s University and Medical Lead for England Ice Hockey. The online event took place on the evening of Monday 15th September with 115 sports rehabilitation practitioners in attendance.

Ali shared insights from injury, rehabilitation processes, and medical provision in UK ice hockey. The recording is available to watch here.

Ali Emery – Senior Lecturer in Sports Rehabilitation at St Mary’s University and Medical Lead for England Ice Hockey

Ali Emery is a Senior Lecturer in Sports Rehabilitation at St Mary’s University in Twickenham and the Medical Lead for England Ice Hockey. In her early career as a Sports Rehabilitator, she worked in residential rehabilitation settings with injured firefighters and the military. In both of these units, she was exposed to a wide range of injuries from elderly, retired firefighters to front-line infantry soldiers. During this time, she also supported athletes back to game fitness across many sports such as ice hockey, rugby, football, and basketball, while studying for her MSc in Strength and Conditioning.

In her current role with England Ice Hockey, she has focused on enhancing medical provision across the England programme, introducing robust medical policies, and ensuring the safety of athletes. She has also been instrumental in implementing new policies nationwide, such as mandatory concussion education for coaches, to improve understanding of “recognise, remove, and return to play” at all levels.

In February 2025, she began a PhD exploring the effectiveness of medical policies and procedures in UK ice hockey, comparing them to those in other countries and sports. This research includes injury surveillance to identify common sports injuries and highlight areas needing attention. Ultimately, her work aims to develop new policies to maximise UK ice hockey players’ safety and well-being.

Sport Rehab & Medical Provision in UK Ice Hockey

Ali’s presentation shared insights from injury, rehabilitation processes and medical provision in UK ice hockey.

Introduction

She introduced her professional and personal background in relation to sports rehab and ice hockey. She graduated as a GSR in 2012 and completed an MSc in Strength and Conditioning in 2015. Having played ice hockey from age 11, she has also competed for GB and has been the Medical Lead at England Ice Hockey since 2023.

Introduction to Ice Hockey

The fast-paced sport of ice hockey demands strength, speed, power, agility, and endurance. Players rotate throughout the game, with replacements made every 40–60 seconds. Body checking and contact are a big part of the game and are introduced from the U14 level upwards.

She outlined the ice hockey league structure in England, which includes women’s and men’s elite leagues, junior leagues from U9 to U19, recreational leagues, and para ice hockey.

Injuries in Ice Hockey

She discussed findings from international research into injuries in ice hockey. Studies show that over 75% of injuries are traumatic and associated with body checking and collisions. Head injuries are most common, including lacerations to the head and face. Significantly more injuries occur during games than during training or practice.

In relation to UK ice hockey, she referred to research by Ashley Jones et al., the first study to investigate injury patterns in UK participants. The research followed Leeds Knights over two seasons and found that injury incidence was 54 per 1,000 hours, with time-loss injuries accounting for 8 per 1,000 hours. 17.6% of injuries were sustained to the head. Shoulder and muscle contusion injuries had the highest burden.

Common Injury Issues – Concussion

With international and UK research highlighting the prevalence of head injuries in ice hockey, she decided to investigate further. During the 2022/23 season, she conducted action research to identify EIHA coaches’ knowledge of concussion and understand their role in managing it.

100% of coaches were aware of the term concussion, and 72% had witnessed a player being removed from play with a suspected concussion. 39% of coaches said they would decide if a player should continue to play, with some of these coaches having no previous concussion education. 13% of coaches without concussion education said they would give symptoms advice following a concussion. Encouragingly, 89% of coaches wanted concussion education.

Positive changes
Since the 2023/24 season, coaches and managers must complete an online concussion awareness course through UK Coaching.

Adam’s Angels

On 26th October 2023, Adam Johnson sadly lost his life during an ice hockey match after sustaining a fatal laceration to his neck from an opponent’s skate.

Adam’s Angels is a registered charity by Erin Rose to raise money to supply ice hockey clubs with emergency bleed control medical kits. Since its establishment in November 2023, the charity has provided every ice hockey team in the UK with a bleed control kit.

The charity now aims to supply all UK ice rinks with large bleed control kits. Find out more and donate here.

Positive changes
In 2024, the EIA mandated neck guards in all leagues and age groups.

Medical Provision in UK Ice Hockey

She discussed current medical provision in relation to trained practitioners. In the National League, all but one top-tier team currently has a medic in place. NIHL Division One and Two have inconsistent medical provision, with only some teams registering a medic.

Women’s ice hockey in the UK remains largely non-professional, with clubs having limited funding for medics or therapists. No registered medics currently work exclusively with any women’s teams in the UK.

The situation with junior clubs is similar, with limited resources available. Some teams are fortunate to have a parent with appropriate qualifications who can register as a medic.

This season, it is now free for all medics and therapists to register with EIH to remove barriers some clubs may face in hiring medical staff.

Ice Hockey & PHICIS

As medical provision improves across the sport, there is an ambition to follow the path of other sports such as rugby and football and offer sport-specific trauma courses.

A PHICIS Level 2 course was delivered specifically for ice hockey medics this year, and the plan is to make this an annual course. Ice hockey scenarios and specific content will also be included in future courses.

Pitch-side trauma management presents challenges that are unique to ice hockey, including:

• Barrier of equipment – helmets, padded shorts, skates
• The ice surface itself
• Lack of opportunity to practise extrication on the ice
• Current knowledge and education in the sport – concussion

Research in UK Ice Hockey

Her PhD and research from Leeds Beckett University are investigating medical standards and provision in UK ice hockey.

The research includes:

• NIHL multi-site injury surveillance
• Scoping review of current and grey literature
• Field-based observational study
• Coaches’ medical confidence and competence
• Stakeholders’ perspectives on medical procedures

Dr Ashley Jones is also undertaking injury surveillance research in grassroots ice hockey.

Job Opportunities

Below the national league, consistent medical provision is not seen. The medic or therapist role requirements in ice hockey include:

• Appropriate qualifications (physiotherapist, GSR, sports therapist, chiropractor, osteopathic, nurse, doctor, etc.)
• Appropriate accreditation and insurance (e.g. CSP, BASRaT)
• Current first aid or trauma qualification
• DBS and safeguarding course

Student therapists can work alongside a medic or therapist but must be fully supervised.

Further information and follow Ali Emery

England Ice Hockey

Q&A

Ali kindly answered questions put forward by practitioners who attended the session. Please see the presentation recording for Ali’s insights.

Presentation Recording

The recording of Ali’s presentation is available to watch here.

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