Certificate in Soccer Injury Prevention and Return to Play

This course targets the nutritional, psychological, physiological, and social aspects of soccer injury, prevention, and returning to play, enhancing your knowledge of how you can improve your team’s performance. Developing processes and interventions is an important way to minimise the risk of injuries. During this course, you will learn from leading practitioners and academics such as Dr. Hilary Obert, Dr. Juan Carlos Ramos, Dr. Patrick Orme, and Aleksa Boskovic. With course materials covering injury analysis, implementing injury prevention programmes, and rehabilitation in soccer, you will learn the techniques and methodologies that will reduce injuries and improve performance within your team.

Course Content

Module 1 Injury analysis in soccer

• Led by Dr. Hilary Obert.
• Introduction to epidemiology and key injury types evident within team sports, particularly soccer.
• Understand how injuries occur and manifest themselves within the game across all levels.
• The importance of maximising training availability and direct specific training interventions to maintain a healthy, fit and functioning group of players.

Module 2 How to implement injury prevention programmes within soccer

• Led by Dr. Victor Salinas Paalcios.
• How to implement injury prevention programmes in a sporting context.
• Evidence around injury prevention programmes.
• Specific frameworks in the soccer environment and how we can control key variables.

Module 3 Understanding injury prevention and rehabilitation in soccer

• Led by Dr. Juan Carlos Ramos.
• Explore the injury prevention and rehabilitation processes used within a soccer club.
• A case study with one of the world’s biggest clubs in terms of the processes.
• Definition of injury.
• Frequency and importance of injury prevention from a club standpoint.
• Development of training programmes for the reduction of injury risk and the role rehabilitation plays in this process.

Module 4 Injury reduction strategies in professional soccer

• Led by Dr. Patrick Orme.
• Highlight soccer-specific injury prevention methods that have been positively used within a team sport environment and elite level soccer club.
• Factors and ways of reducing the injury risk to players.
• The role of scheduling and planning within soccer and the impact on player health and well-being.

Module 5 Screening processing in soccer and corrective implementation

• Led by Dr. Hilary Obert.
• How screening and implementation of corrective exercises can maximise and reduce the injury risks among athletes.
• Individual programme development and linking injury prevention corrective programmes back to the screening process to highlight key deficiencies with biomechanical content.

Module 6 Nutrition for injury phases and rehabilitation

• Led by Faisal Alshawa.
• Understand how to fuel and maximise the recovery of players.
• The role nutrition plays in the injury and rehabilitation phases.
• Food types and nutrition for injury phases – what we can control, influencing inflammation, muscle loss and regeneration.

Module 7 Injury prevention in soccer: key strategies and methods

• Led by Aleksa Boskovic.
• Integrated approach to injury prevention, strategies and methods that have a positive influence.
• How many elements of physical performance can influence the injury risk to players?
• Understand where elements fit together to minimise risk.

Module 8 Psychology during soccer injury

• Led by Jorge David Mora Anzola.
• Understanding the injured athlete and its importance to the rehabilitation state based on the psychological consequences that can be generated through injury.
• Multidisciplinary working approach is vitally important.
• Role of the coach in the injury stages.

Module 9 Soccer-specific movement preparation: improving efficiency

• Led by Aleksa Boskovic.
• Overview of the rehabilitation and build up phase for return to play.
• Improving the efficiency of the player and the importance of developing the movement qualities of the athlete.
• Influencing mobility, core development and lower body activation specific to the demands of the game.

Module 10 Training load management: performance optimisation

• Led by Dr. Adam Owen.
• Practical examples of strength training and movement efficiency.
• Specific training load management.
• High-performance settings and philosophy.
• Specific indicators of injury reduction and risk factors from a coach-centred perspective.
• Internal and external scientific principles meets practice.
• Exposing specific microcycle tapering strategies from a research-based perspective in a team sport context.

Module 11 ACL injury criteria based on return to play in soccer

• Led by Dr. Felix Fischer.
• Examples of specific return to play criteria following a common injury type known as Anterior-cruciate ligament injury (ACL).
• Knee injuries in soccer.
• Return to play criteria used.
• The science behind the process.
• Simple battery test used for the return to play.

Module 12 Preparing the injured player for return to play (RTP)

• Led by Matthew Newton.
• The return to play process post-injury phase.
• RTP process in modern day elite level of the game using data and information to maximise the rehabilitation stage.
• How the match-play demands are linked to the rehabilitation process.
• The creation of player and positional-specific RTP drills from a practical standpoint.