How do I know when I can let my injured player back on to the pitch?

How do I know when I can let my injured player back on to the pitch?

How do I know when I can let my injured player back on to the pitch? If a player has been involved in a heavy tackle or collision, or if they have tripped up in training, how do you know whether they should continue or be rested? It is a real dilemma, many players are competitive so will tell you they feel fine and want to continue but this isn’t always best practice as they could make their injury much, much worse.

A touchline coach or sports physio. has to make this type of decision on a regular basis. So how do they know what to do? As a first aider we tend to use systems to help make life saving decisions; remember your ABCs for an unconscious collapsed casualty!

This is no different; there is a first aid system for dealing with sports injuries. One of the commonest is called SALTAPS. This is a sports related methodology to assess an injury you have observed with the aim of making an accurate assessment of the type, location and severity of an injury.

SALTAPS

S for See for the injury: A coach onsite will see the injury in order to evaluate how bad it is. S also stands for STOP activity for this assessment.

A for Ask questions: Ask the injured player questions such as: What happened? Where does it hurt? Also ask for permission to continue with the assessment.

L for Look: for specific signs and indicators of injury at injury: Look for swelling, bruising, bleeding and deformity. Assess the injury in accordance with what the player is answering about the questions asked above. You may have to roll down socks or move clothing to get a good look.

T for Touch the inured part: Very gently touch the injured area to determine severity of the injury. This step involves finding out whether the casualty is experiencing loss of skin sensation, any deformity of the injured part and or tenderness.

A for Active movement: After assessing that it’s not a major injury; ask the casualty to gently move the injured part. The range of movement will determine whether the player should be allowed for further participation or not. Note the athlete moves the injured part independently.

P for Passive movement: When the player shows active movement satisfactorily, you can move the body part gently. If passive movement is present the player, needs immediate medical care. Note you move the injured part for the athlete.

S for Strength testing: This last step should be performed. If you have followed the sequence about and there is no pain on passive movement the strength testing assessment should be conducted. In strength testing, the first aider will provide resistance when the player tries to move the part.

With increasingly serious injuries, it is important to cease the SALTAPS process at an appropriate stage.

Having some knowledge of techniques and methodologies for sports coaches helps prevent long-term injuries for players, both amateur and professional.

Contact us for more information or view our upcoming sports first aid courses by clicking here.

You may be interested in our Digital Sports First Aid manual. The manual is free for anyone who books on one of our first aid courses. This can be downloaded multiple times to your hand held tablet or phone and includes links to a large video library of videos demonstrating first aid techniques like CPR and injury management. The manual also contains links to a library of blogs dealing with specific illnesses and injuries.