I have worked within the medical department at Southampton Football Club Academy for the past two seasons, full-time, on a sandwich year, in the 2015/16 season and upon returning to university, I continued part-time during the 2016/17 season. I worked with elite players from the age of 7 to 23. This gave me experience in dealing with a wide range of sporting injuries and musculoskeletal conditions, including a number of adolescent and growth related conditions. I am aware of the special needs of football players and have developed many individualised rehabilitation programs for a range of football and growth-related injuries.
I have learnt the importance of working as part of a multi-disciplinary team and how each department must work together to provide the best possible standard of medical care, this includes keeping up to date notes on the online PMA system but also keeping a detailed record of academy injuries to assess for any trends.
During my full-time season, the club underwent its EPPP audit and managed to maintain its Category 1 status. In the run up to this, I was involved in staff meetings, planning the various aspects which would be assessed and gained an understanding of what the experience involved.
In addition to working in a professional environment, I also hold the position of Sports Therapist for the University of Chichester Men’s Football First Team. Working with this team has improved my confidence as I am often the only person with medical knowledge and have limited equipment when injuries do occur. It also meant I often am the first point of call 24/7 when injuries occurred, even if they had physiotherapists with outside teams.
I often led pre-habilitation sessions with the academy players and this is a process I bought back to university, along with pre-activation before training and games.
Although, as you see I am only graduating this year, I believe that my experience proves I am hard working and address your position requirements. I have a sound knowledge around both football-related injuries, which affect both younger and older players, and how to provide a high standard of rehabilitation for these conditions.