Like any well oiled racing team, comes a pit crew, that regularly changes, the oil, tires and fixes any mechanically problems when required.  The Highveld Lions pit crew, aka the medical team includes the highly experienced Dr Jon Patricios, our team Sports Physcian, Strength and Conditioning Coach, Jeff Lunsky and myself as Physiotherapist.

Each of us, play a very important role, in keeping guys on the field.  Prior to the commencement of a season, each contracted Lions player has a medical screen done, by Dr Jon Patricios, a fitness and strength battery of tests by Jeff Lunsky and a very thorough musculoskeletal assessment by myself.  These screening procedures allows  each discipline of the medical team to plot out areas of strength and weakness in a cricketer.   A medical screen allows Dr Patricios to  check blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure, ECG's as well as many other tests, which can effect performance.  Jeff's tests, involve aerobic and anaerobic fitness, as well as strength, power and agility tests, which would give him a better understanding of the fitness of each player.  Thus he will then plot out training programmes to improve performance in a player.  From a musculoskeletal point of view, I am able to pinpoint, the finer areas that may cause injury in the future.  Hence each player will then be handed an individual program to limit some injuries from occurring.    The catch phrase is "prehabilitation".  Preventive rehabilitation which most players will perform.  

If an injury occurs, I will assess and diagnosis the player immediately.  It is then important that I get the correct diagnosis of injury, in order to relay a report to the coach and player.  Knowing the time out of play is important for both.  By this I mean, understanding the grade/depth of a tear, when it comes to muscle injures. Understanding, if a ligament or tendon is strained or torn or if a player has a fracture or broken bone.  These answers may not be easily diagnosed by objective testing, therefore if required an immediate referral to Dr Patricios is important.  As he will reassess the player and send him for further imagining.  Imagining may be a x-ray, mainly used to diagnosis bone injuries, Ultrasound Scans for tissue related injuries (muscles, tendons and ligaments), and if a diagnosis cannot be made our last option would be an MRI.

When a diagnosis is made, we are able to manage the injury appropriately, that is, understanding the time out of the game to undergo physiotherapy, initial rehabilitation and end phase rehabilitation (return to play rehabilitation).

Elite athletes are high performance individuals who need to be treated as such. The Lions cricketers form part of a high performance structure that enables them to perform at a high level for a prolonged period of time.  In order to achieve this the season is broken in different phases. Namely, Off-season, Pre-season and In- season.  Jeff Lunsky and myself are tasked in developing programmes which will condition our players for a 6-7 month season and now involves playing 3 formats of the game.   Jeff focuses his attention on the physical conditioning and strength of the players, whereas I focus on stability (core, shoulder and ankle), flexibility and throwing (conditioning of the shoulder).

As previously mentioned, prehabilitation is the focus and attempting to limit injuries from occurring is the goal.  All our programmes and injury prevention strategies are evidence based.  Thus understanding the sport and common injuries, together with the results from our screening helps us devise these programmes.

@Craig_gov

Craig Govender Physiotherapy @ the Bullring