Dear Noel,

I’m in my first year as physio for the county after a few years with my local club,
It’s such a step-up. My main attribute as a physio is speed. As one club player said, “I barely had my knee taken out of his stomach when you were on with the ice-spray.”

I often tended to a serious injury while the player continued to take a full part in the game.
However, at county level, it’s totally different. Last week, in a televised match, one of our lads went down in a heap. I rushed in. At first glance, I was fairly sure his sarcoplasmic reticulum had become altered through excessive activity (he’s a non-scoring half-forward.)
As I set to work, he whispered in a very aggressive fashion: “You’re here too quickly, I won’t get camera time at all now.”

I was stunned. Now I notice all the top physios take their time. They all just want to be on the box, physios and players.
What should I do, Noel?

     - Emanuel, address withheld.

 Noel replies – It’s not everyone who can make the transition. Work out an arrangement with the players whereby they only go down when you’re up in the other half.
You won’t compromise your belief in speed, but you’ll be sprinting 80 yards, so even if you’re Yifter the Shifter himself, it will take you a while to get there.
Be cool, too. Don’t transmit panic. So even if you know for a fact that a player ruptured his peroneus brevis tendon, tell him he’s fine and get him to run it off.

There’s no arseboxing with Noel. Contact him on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ; www.knowledgeablenoel.com; Skype (knowledgeable.noel); and Facebook (Knowledgeable Noel.)  

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