I've had a love affair with disability football for nearly 20 years now, and so I am chuffed to bits to be appointed to the new role of Para Physiotherapy Lead for
@EnglandFootball
starting in July. Can't wait to get going 🦁🦁🦁
🏴 4
🇺🇸 2
Captain
@Matts90
with a quarter final hattrick ⚽⚽⚽
@England
CP into the last four of the World Cup for the first time
Everyone very excited about the semi on Tuesday 🦁🦁🦁
Very excited to be made Head of Medical for the
@ifcpf
⚽ Looking forward to taking steps to hopefully help the health and wellbeing of Cerebral Palsy footballers globally
4.5 years at
@bournemouthuni
is coming to an end as I'm making the switch back to clinical practice. Big thanks to all the staff & students at BU for everything, and best of luck for 2021 & beyond 🍀
So after years of mulling over
#concussion
assessment management in disability athletes & using SCAT3/5 as best we can, there is finally something a bit more definitive- the 1st Position Statement of the Concussion in Para Sport (CIPS) Group, and it's coming soon to
@BJSM_BMJ
👀
Buzzing that our Position Statement on
#concussion
in Para Sport is now available in
@BJSM_BMJ
! Grateful to have been able to work with a world-class team on this, which will help impact on the care of Para athletes at this year's
@Paralympics
& beyond:
Proud to be in the inaugural cohort of the "Emerging Leaders in Sport & Exercise Medicine" programme run by
@FSEM_UK
and
@basem_uk
. First day today at
@RCPhysicians
in London- very nice facilities (and lunch) with excellent keynotes from
@SportswiseUK
and
@DrNatashaJones
🏴 vs 🇺🇦 in the
@ifcpf
European Championship final today
5pm KO in the UK & shown live here:
This squad is 60mins from making history as the 1st
@England
Cerebral Palsy side to win a major 🏆 and hopefully can inspire a new generation of CP footballers
🏴3️⃣
🇮🇪1️⃣
Milestone win for the
@England
Cerebral Palsy squad making a major tournament final for the first time
@DavidPorcher97
with a brace and Will Ramsay sealing it in the last minute with a debut goal in the European Championship semi final
One more push on Saturday....
Very excited to start 2022 with a new (part-time) role as Para Classification Manager for
@EnglandFootball
! Lots to get stuck into and looking forward to learning lots from other federations/organisations too
#ParaLions
No shame in a 3-0 defeat to World Champions (and now European Champions) Ukraine this afternoon
🥈 medal for the
@England
Cerebral Palsy squad at the European Championships represents a huge step forward- lots more to come from this squad in the future
Lots to be proud of from this week in Tenerife but the culture shift to one Para Football team was big. Shared fitness sessions and S&C education between men's/women's squads of different
@EnglandFootball
impairment groups was a real highlight 🦁🦁🦁
Day 1 Session 1 at the Para Football warm weather training camp in Tenerife ✅
Men's Cerebral Palsy, Men's & Women's Deaf, and Blind Men's all in attendance this week 🌞⚽
3 wins out of 3 and 🔝 of the group for the
@England
Cerebral Palsy squad at the Euros
Liam Solanke with a 🚀 and captain Matt Crossen with the 2nd
48 hours until a semi final vs 🇮🇪 or 🇺🇦
🏴3️⃣
🇪🇸1️⃣
Solid start for the
@England
Cerebral Palsy team in the 1st group game with a
@DavidPorcher97
hattrick against a much-improved Spain side
Next up- 🇮🇹 on Sunday
Comfortable win for the
@England
Cerebral Palsy squad against the country with the best national anthem in the world
Everyone delighted for
@Jaydenkenyon_1
getting a hattrick on his first start for England &
@DavidPorcher97
amongst the goals again
Final group game vs 🇳🇱 on Tues
I know these posts can come across as cheesy but we are really really grateful to all of the staff at the St Marys site at
@UHD_NHS
for the care we got before & during the arrival of our little 👶🏽 and the ongoing care we're still having. Midwives/Doctors/everybody- thanks heaps!
Back home after a pretty special/brilliant few days at the IOC conference. Very grateful to have had the opportunity to present in Monaco, there's lots to be excited about in terms of the quality of Para sport research coming through 💪🏽
#MonacoConference2024
Stage is set for the FA Disability Cup this weekend at St George's Park- huge moment for Para Football with all games live on
@btsportfootball
today and tomorrow
#DiscoverDisabilityFootball
⚽
Surreal (and a first for me) to break my fast at the
#afcb
game last night at the same time as two of our players did on the side of the pitch (I had a pie, they didn't). Nice that most of our fans clapped them when they did too, football is definitely becoming more inclusive 🙆🏻
Proud to have played a part in
@ifcpf
temporary concussion substitution policy being in place for 2020!
1st time the Laws of the Game in any form of ⚽️ have been changed for
#concussion
. 10min window allows temporary sub to enter the play to help safeguard the injured player
This week we had our 5th meeting (all of them virtual) of the Concussion In Para Sport group, and coincidentally our
@BJSM_BMJ
Infographic on our 1st Position Statement on
#Concussion
in Para Sport is now available online too 🙆🏻♂️
FA Disability Cup about to kick off at St George's Park with six cup finals on this weekend. The Partially Sighted final starts it all off at 10.15am today with all games live on
@btsport
. Brilliant for Para sport to have a showpiece event broadcasted like this 💥
Been eye-opening seeing the response to events in Gaza.
@thecsp
, my professional body, have a council who state publicly (including at their AGM) that "neutrality" is their preferred approach & they refuse to join calls for a ceasefire as it could "cause offence". Get in the 🗑️.
"What is happening in Gaza should outrage anyone, should make us all rethink our values.
This a make-or-break moment for all of us, and for our shared humanity." -
@UNLazzarini
My
@DorsetAhps
secondment is looking at equality, diversity & inclusivity across Allied Health Professionals in the Dorset ICS workforce. We're conducting interviews in the coming months as per the flier below- please signpost your colleagues who may be interested towards this⬇️
Interesting how many people in England who think we don't have a racism problem over here. I'm mixed race and have a black wife and a mixed race baby, and I definitely notice it believe me
Honoured by the opportunity to speak at
@footballmed
in May on what we know (and what we don't!) about ankle ligament injuries in Para Footballers.
#isoK22
will be fantastic and having Para content on the same stage as mainstream football med content is a very progressive step 🙆🏻♂️
Me and
@karenlitzyNYC
had our
@IOCprevConf
abstract accepted 🙆🏽♂️ We're going to be hosting a workshop on how sports clinicians can work with the media (social and mainstream) to better serve our athletes. Monaco here we come 🇲🇨
More work on the training ground for the
@England
Cerebral Palsy squad ahead of our Group A opener on Tuesday in the
@ifcpf
World Cup. Big game at Ewood Park later on today too....👀
Really enjoyed being a part of this
@BJSM_BMJ
editorial on medical handovers in elite sport!
Having input from staff involved in men's ⚽/ women's ⚽/Para ⚽/
@FIFAMedical
/
@FIFPRO
& player input from
@kelly_smith10
hopefully gives a rounded approach to this overlooked topic
Am made up to be successful with my leadership secondment application to
@DorsetAhps
🙆🏽♂️
The topic (diversity in the Dorset AHP workforce) is very close to me being Dorset born & bred. Lots to explore/understand and hopefully a chance to bring about positive change for clinicians
Respect to the
@FA
for opening a Contemplation Room at St George's Park on the 1st day of Ramadan this year. Having a space at the home of English football where coaches, players, medical staff & anyone else can have space to pray/time to reflect is a very progressive step 👏🏽
Very good end to a very good week away in Tenerife. We're fortunate to have some fantastic players & staff within the Para Football programme and there's lot to be excited about for our elite
@England
Para teams for the rest of this season and beyond 🦁🦁🦁
Day 1 session 1 of the
@England
Para Football training camp in Tenerife- the England Deaf Men's & Women's, Blind Men's & Women's, Cerebral Palsy and Partially Sighted squads all here split over two venues. Big training week ahead 💪🏽🏃🏽♀️🏋🏼♂️
Very excited to be appointed as Visiting Senior Lecturer at
@portsmouthuni
in
@UoPSportScience
! Thanks to
@thelwellrc
for the invitation- looking forward to collaborating with staff and students in the coming years
Big 4 days in Amsterdam at the 6th International Consensus Conference on Concussion in Sport- massive thanks to
@CheriBlauwetMD
& the other CIPS group members for our Para sport session, and to
@knight_millie
& Marijn Ploem for the Athlete Voice panel! Definite progressions made.
Doing a basic shop for bread, milk, and eggs for my Grandparents (combined age 187 years old) shouldn't be this difficult. Hoarders of Bournemouth and Poole, you are the worst of the worst. STOP BEING GREEDY EVERYONE ⛔
Pushed the best team in the world to the brink today, a 1-0 loss to
@ruscpfootball
doesn't tell the whole tale. This
@England
Cerebral Palsy squad squad are going places 🦁🦁🦁
The 2023/2024
@England
Para Football season kicking off with an induction camp this weekend at St George's Park 🏴
England teams going to World Cups for the Deaf Men's, Powerchair, and Deaf Women's squads in the coming months- lots to look forward to for our elite squads 🦁🦁🦁
Want a scholarship to do medical research in elite football?
@afcbournemouth
are funding an MRes study which be jointly supervised by
@bournemouthuni
and
#afcb
staff. More details here: Closing date is 18th April 2019
Amazing few days in Monaco for
#IOCprev2021
and then sightseeing after! Big thanks to everyone involved in the organisation of the conference, and especially to
@karenlitzyNYC
for being a dream co-presenter. Hopefully can see everyone again soon as meeting IRL is > 💻
1st day of filming AHPs from diverse backgrounds in Dorset talking about the career paths into their various professions. And sharing just how good it is working in Dorset! Video outputs coming 🔜
Our
@BJSM_BMJ
editorial on the benefits (and risks) of WhatsApp for communication in sport & exercise medicine has been accepted 🙆🏽♂️ This was relevant before COVID-19 but even more relevant now unfortunately. Massive thanks to coauthors
@DrImtiazAhmad7
@seancarmody1
& Lewis Walker
We're going to Seville and we're not coming back till we've won the World Cup 🏆 (maybe).
Headed away with the
@England
Cerebral Palsy squad for the
@ifcpf
World Cup- first group game vs 🇩🇪 on July 8th 🦁🦁🦁
2020 summary: 1 pandemic + 1 lockdown + 1 brilliant baby arriving + 1 relegation from the Prem + 4 autumn funerals/reading 2 eulogies + 1 wake on Zoom + 1 house move + 1 more lockdown + 1 change of career. Definite 🎢 of a year
So good seeing the Para Football squads all over St George's Park with the new imaging on the walls 🦁🦁🦁 This definitely reinforces to our players and staff that our Para squads are part of one big
@England
team
A story about when you try to engage with your professional body with your peers about Gaza, but continually get shut down:
Closed letter to CSP ❌
Open letter to CSP ❌
Conference submission to CSP ❌
Wonder why
@thecsp
rejected our symposium on this topic at their conference?
Penultimate day in Tenerife for the
@EnglandFootball
Para squads. Lots of (very) hard work put in by players across the squads so far, and plenty more still to come 🥵
Growing up in the halcyon Mel Machin era I was convinced I was the only Muslim AFCB fan in the world, so it's nice to see the club putting this out
#EidMubarak
First game of the Trinations tournament this morning at St George's Park for the
@England
CP team
🏴 vs 🇮🇪 kicks off at noon today, with games against 🇳🇱 this weekend too
Next stop after this- the
@ifcpf
European Championships in June
It's been a long long year but a big shout out to all the (unnamed)
@BUPhysio
students who are responsible for this being on my desk today. Don't want to be overly 🧀y but it's been big fun teaching you all
Very grateful to be a part of this
@BJSM_BMJ
editorial/infographic. Huge potential for all of us to change the landscape of the SEM community by embracing our discomfort. Thanks to
@krmarino1
for leading us all on this- full editorial available at:
Privileged to be in Dublin at the
@I_B_I_A
#WorldCongressOnBrainInjury
today to present with
@DrNickReed
on "Concussion in Sport for Athlete with Disabilities", but Dr Jamie Kissick not being there to present with us was tough. He was a great man & led the way for this. RIP Jamie
Definitely futsal weather today 😳 Busy weekend with the Performance Foundation and National Emerging Talent Pathway all up at Lilleshall
@EnglandFootball
🦁🦁🦁
Brilliant for the England CP squad to have their first senior international game since COVID against
@ussoccer_ENT
today 🙆🏽♂️
It's always a tough game against the USA but
@JamesPBlackwell
on his comeback got the only goal of the game 🦁🦁🦁
Tomorrow 🏴 v 🏴 then 🇺🇲 v 🏴 on Sunday
Myself &
@CheriBlauwetMD
are grateful to have contributed towards the para sport section in the
#concussion
consensus statement on behalf of the Concussion in Para Sport group 🧠
It is superb to see content in there for the 1st time related to athletes with a disability....
Am chuffed to bits for a young man called Joe who has worked very very hard and got himself his first publication in
@BJSM_BMJ
with an editorial on monitoring heading load in professional football 🥳 Been a pleasure to collaborate with
@jooeee25
& the rest of the coauthors on it
Made up to end 2022 with getting this one over the line! A lot of graft went into this from the whole team, especially Richard Weiler as lead author. It is brilliant that Para voices are being listened to regarding
#concussion
, with hopefully much more to come in this space
@DreznerJon
and
@IrfAsif
kicking off the 7th IOC World Conference on Prevention of Injury and Illness in Sport. So so good to see equity in healthcare research being front & centre at a major conference like this, and am proud of
@BJSM_BMJ
for driving it ✊🏽
#MonacoConference2024