A knee surgeon is encouraging grassroots footballers to take steps to prevent serious injuries.
Gareth Stables, a Specialist Knee Surgeon from Cheshire, is an ambassador for a charity which specialises in improving welfare for young people in grassroots sports through prevention of serious knee injuries.
‘Power Up To Play’ provides demonstrations of what warm-ups and exercises can decrease the chances of getting these injuries.
He said: “If we can get grassroots people taking up injury prevention programmes, which is essentially just a specific warm-up, then potentially you can see a significant reduction in injury rates.”
Other websites also provide support for free in different sports, but injuries in grassroots football are common.
He said his private clinic sees many non-league football players, who have to pay for their own surgeries sustained in matches, which is often crowdfunded, due to the waiting lists of the NHS.
Marine AFC footballer, Harvey Gregson, suffered an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury after playing a match in the National League North in December, and has launched a GoFundMe page to help pay for surgery.
His GoFundMe page reads: “After sustaining an ACL injury in a recent game against Oxford city it means I require surgery, not being with the PFA (Professional Footballers’ Association) this means I would have to pay privately to get back playing as quick as possible.
“Along with being out of work and not being able to play football this cost has made things a bit more difficult so any donations would be greatly appreciated.”
He has raised £7,505 towards his £8k target.
Seven of Marine AFC’s players are currently unable to play due to injuries, with Gregson and one other player both suffering from ACL injuries and won’t be back for the foreseeable future, Director of Football Neil Young has confirmed.
Non-league footballers are usually only part-time and have another job alongside the football, which means when they suffer from injuries, it puts them out of work completely.
It can be up to a year before a player is able to return to football following an ACL surgery, meaning they either have to pay privately or be put on a NHS waiting list which can be be around 18 weeks.
Featured image: Emily Doughty
