Professional Football Physiotherapists Diane Ryding and David Fevre – Injury Rehab Network Event

“Physiotherapy in an Elite Football Academy: Beyond Injuries!” and “Pitchside Injuries” – No Time to be Injured – Prequel and Sequel Included

Sterosport are delighted to announce the return to a face-to-face Injury Rehab Network event in collaboration with BASRaT and UA92. Save the date (Monday 22^nd November, 5pm – 8pm) for this in-person event, taking place at UA92 in Manchester, not to be missed by sports rehabilitation professionals and students.

The highlight of the event will be presentations from leading professional football physiotherapists Diane Ryding and David Fevre.

Diane Ryding is Head Physiotherapist for the Foundation and Youth Development Phases at Manchester United Football Club (MUFC). Diane received her BSc (Hons) Physiotherapy from Manchester University in 2000 and worked in the NHS for the next decade. In 2010 she received her MSc in Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy from Manchester Metropolitan University.

Diane has been involved in academy football since 2004 initially working as a Casual Academy Physiotherapist at MUFC, progressing to her current role in 2010. During her time with MUFC, Diane has seen a significant expansion in the Academy system, managing the increasing medical requirements of an evolving Academy programme. Her role is to ensure that paediatric injuries are managed appropriately whilst considering growth and maturation and ensuring that the long-term athletic development of the player takes precedent over short-term gains.

Diane is a Visiting Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University. She is an FA Affiliate Medical Tutor for the English Football Association and has taught international sports trauma management courses for SPORTS ER. Diane has recently had three chapters published in ‘A Comprehensive Guide to Sports Physiology and Injury Management.’ These chapters introduce concepts around working in an elite football academy along with diagnosing and managing paediatric injuries. Diane is currently involved in supporting research around Cardiac Profiling in Academy footballers.

Diane’s presentation, “Physiotherapy in an elite football academy: Beyond injuries!” will focus on the growth and maturation of young athletes and the soft skills required by sports rehabilitation professionals to provide a child-centred approach.

In Diane’s previous presentation for the Injury Rehab Network, Diane discussed the injuries to look out for in an Academy setting.  This presentation will focus on the other aspects of physiotherapy within a football Academy.

Diane will discuss how growth and maturation is assessed within an Academy setting along with its impact on performance. The strategies for managing adolescents through peak height velocity along with the concepts of adolescent awkwardness, relative age effect, bio-banding and considerations around training loads will all be discussed.

When working with academy players, we must understand what constitutes a child centred assessment.  How do we communicate with the young athlete and parent? How do we avoid over medicalisation within a youth setting?  Having an awareness of how the adolescent brain develops, along with the pressures that young footballers are under (both internal and external), can aid the therapist to have a greater understanding of the player.

With regards to rehabilitation, what is the ‘secret sauce’ to engaging and motivating children? How do we encourage ownership? How do we keep things functional and most importantly FUN?

Ultimately, when working with young children we are developing people as well as athletes.  By encouraging them to take ownership and an active approach in their rehabilitation, we aspire that this will have a positive effect on any further rehabilitation required as part of their adult career.

David Fevre is currently working as a freelance clinician/ lecturer in physiotherapy and sports injury rehabilitation. He has consultancy roles with several European, Premiership, Championship and EFL football clubs and is on the teaching faculty for both the Football Association (FA) and Rugby Football League (RFL). He was Head of Sports Medicine for Blackburn Rovers FC until January 2017, having been in post since July 1999. Prior to this, he was previously the Chartered Physiotherapist for Wales (2002-2005), Manchester United FC (1994-1999), Great Britain Rugby League (1990-1994), Wigan RL (1989-1994) and Leigh RL (1984-1989). He worked in the NHS immediately after gaining his Chartered status and then within several sports injury clinics based in the private hospital sector prior to these full-time posts in elite sport.

He lectures extensively internationally and in the UK on subjects related to sports injury rehabilitation, has had articles/research papers published in several rehabilitation related journals and is the author of the book ‘Collision Sports Injury and Repair.’ In 2012, he was invited to the European (London) and World (Belgium) Soccer conferences to present oral abstracts on his research work in professional football. He is also an honorary lecturer at both Salford and Manchester University and was awarded the ‘Outstanding Contribution to Professional Football’ award in 2014 by the Football Medical Association (FMA) and ‘The Fabrice Muamba Outstanding Contribution to Professional Football Award in the NW of England’ in 2015.

David’s presentation “No Time to be Injured – Prequel and Sequel Included” will focus on the level of care required for the athlete from the medical team. David will consider injury prevention (prequel) and possible injury reoccurrence (sequel).

David kindly provided the following summary of his lecture.

“The title of the lecture is one of the most regular comments thrown at you by players and coaches, albeit with a few expletives to pad it out! If I were to rephrase it to become the new James Bond film title – ‘No Time to Die’ – and use this as my lecture title some of you may think I was exaggerating the issue. But from recent events in the sporting world, it may be a more appropriate title to emphasise the level of care required for the athlete from the medical team.

As a physiotherapist working in sport, you have a duty of care to yourself as a professional, the player – injured or not, the medical team you work within or lead, and your employer – the club. It is therefore essential you have the appropriate qualifications, knowledge, and experience to deal with any injury scenario, which may be life-threatening in some cases, before agreeing to stand on the touchline and carry the medical bag in a competitive match at whatever level. Your physiotherapy/ sports rehabilitation/ therapy degree provides you with little information for what to expect in the match scenario and it is essential you gain the correct knowledge and practical skills to work within the medical team in an acute injury situation.”

A positive result at the end of the game for the medical team is no injuries and hopefully a win out on the pitch. At least if an injury does occur has it been correctly managed acutely? The next stage is to put a plan in place for the future management to promote recovery. This process is often an uphill battle to overcome the many variables that may exist or develop before being able to return to sport, and could the injury have been prevented before it occurred (Prequel) and what are the chances of the injury re-occurring (Sequel)?

Even though the lecturer, David Fevre has worked in professional sport for over 25 years, new scenarios constantly occur, and it needs an immediate response to solve the issues that develop. Problem-solving without the aid of the gadgets produced by Q in other words!”

Top tips for working in professional football – Diane and David will also offer advice on how to develop a career in sports rehabilitation/ physiotherapy in professional football.

The event will also include presentations from Physiquipe and Winback Medical about new and innovative products for sports rehabilitation and the opportunity to network with delegates, students and staff from UA92.

Physiquipe provides high-quality medical rehabilitation technology and education, to the leading clinicians and organisations from across the world. Specialising in Diagnostic Ultrasound, Focused Shockwave and Scar Management, to provide faster, smarter and better treatments for both clinician and patients.

Winback UK & Ireland is part of the Winback Group of companies. Present in over 25 Countries and in over 7,000 private clinics & hospitals and one of the fastest-growing companies Internationally in the sector of Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation with over 350 professional sports organisations. Winback will be presenting Tecartherapy, a revolutionary technology for Physiotherapists, osteopaths, and sports medicine professionals. It involves an innovative joint and muscle regeneration process which stimulates the natural mechanism of self-repair in the human body. The clinical evidence supporting Tecartherapy is based on the frequencies and their correlation with the permeabilization of cell membranes. This permeabilization encourages intra and extracellular activity which accelerates the natural regeneration in the biological tissue. The low level of energy ensures it is non-invasive and 100% natural for the human body.

Places for this unique event are limited so please book early to secure your place. The presentations from Diane Ryding and David Fevre will also be live-streamed for anyone who is unable to attend in person. Delegates are asked to pay a minimum donation of £5 to attend this event.

All income will go to Manchester-based charity, The Running Bee Foundation. Through The Running Bee Foundation events, the charity champions health and wellbeing initiatives to promote the benefits of an active lifestyle and help in the fight to reduce childhood obesity. The Running Bee Foundation make funding accessible to all parts of communities across Manchester with no restriction on age, financial status, religion, or gender.

Event agenda: The event will commence at 5pm with a welcome from organisers, presentations about new and innovative sports rehabilitation products from 5.30pm – 6.30pm, followed by the headline event featuring presentations from and time for questions with Diane Ryding and David Fevre from 6.30pm – 8pm.

This event for anyone studying or working in the field of sports rehabilitation is taking place on Monday 22^nd November 2021 at 5pm. Sterosport are delighted to deliver this and all Injury Rehab Network events in collaboration with the British Association of Sport Rehabilitators (BASRaT) and are excited to be working with UA92 on our return to a face to face event.

Read the post event blog here

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