Football Guide

The Governing body for football, The Football Association is one of the largest in the country due to the numbers of participants in our national sport.  Football is a physically demanding sport that requires excellent strength, endurance and flexibility, for this reason injuries are very common especially when tackling or being tackled.

Defining what should or should not be in a First Aid Kit, depends on your First Aid Training.  Firstaid4sport provides a range of |FOOTBALL FIRST AID KITS//CFIRSTAID300| that include products such as
Zinc Oxide Tape, Blister Gel Plasters, Wound Congealer, Triangular Bandage Non Woven,  Eyepad, |Freeze Spray//P5510|, Instant Cold Packs, Foil Heat Blanket, Fabric Dressings, etc.

The majority of football injuries occur to the lower limb, particularly |knee injuries//AIG_Kneeinjuries| and |sprained ankles//AIG_SPRAINED_ANKLE|, other football injuries include shoulder injuries, |hamstring strains//AIG_hamstring|,  bruising and Shin injuries. For this reason injury prevention is a step in the right direction. 

Injury Prevention
Injuries can be prevented by wearing correctly fitted clothing and equipment, in particular correctly fitted footwear.

A pre-season training program gradually increasing intensity and duration will help to prevent injury including a thorough warm-up and stretching before training or a match.
It’s important to warm up before exercising, as this warms and prepares the muscles, stretching is also done for this reason.  Another really good thing to do after exercising is your cool down, this helps the body get rid of the buildup of lactic acid in the muscles.   

 

FA Recommendations
The following information is from the FA website giving advice about Medical Care at the pitchside.

 "....it is imperative that the trained first-aider is equipped both practically and logistically to manage whatever medical situation may present itself. Pragmatically, there are no hard and fast rules about the contents of the medical bags, but the items listed below should be considered as desirable basic contents which will allow the first-aider to deal with the more common medical presentations.
Contents of a ‘Routine’ Medical Bag
Crepe Bandages
Elastic Adhesive Bandage (Eab) (Various Sizes)
Elastic / Self-Adhesive / Tearable Bandages (Various Sizes)
Zinc Oxide Tape (Inelastic) (Various Sizes)
Disposable Nitrile Gloves
Gauze Swabs
Plasters (Non-Allergenic / Waterproof)
Sterile Non-Adherent Wound Dressings (Various Sizes)
Triangular Bandages
Eye Pads
Spray Bottle (For Iced Water)
Scissors (Safety Type)"