The two day conference was attended by Michel D'Hooghe, member of the FIFA Executive Committee and Chairman of the FIFA medical committee. It was designed to build awareness, develop understanding and share best practice in the field of football injuries, focusing on some of the specific challenges and areas of debate in this field of medicine including knee injuries, ankle injuries, cartilage injuries and more.

Dr. Mohamed Ghaith Al Kuwari, Acting Director General of Aspetar, expressed his delight with hosting a conference of such significance and importance, and one attended by the world’s leading experts. He highlighted the benefit of the conference in offering these experts the opportunity to discuss and share their different experiences tackling football injuries. Given the sport’s popularity, such injuries present some of the most significant challenges faced by medical institutions and sports medicine experts. He added that the conference covered the most crucial aspects of preventing football injuries, as well as the best rehabilitation processes to help footballers return to match fitness – one of the main areas of interest for doctors and athletes.

Al Kuwari added that hosting the conference reinforces Aspetar’s role as a world leading institution of its kind in sports medicine, given its partnerships with the world’s most prominent sports and medical organisations such as the FIFA Medical Committee. Aspetar is also a FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence and a partner of ISAKOS in areas such as research, and the two organisations have conducted a number of joint studies that have proven significant in improving methods of surgical intervention in sports.

Dr. Mohamed Ghaith Al-Kuwari

The conference reinforces Aspetar’s role as a world leading institution of its kind in sports medicine, given its partnerships with the world’s most prominent sports and medical organisations such as FIFA and ISAKOS

Dr. Michel D’Hooghe

We have witnessed in recent years a decline in football injuries from 2.7 injuries per match in 2002 to 1.7 injuries per match, according to our most recent figures

Dr. Philippe Neyret

Aspetar is the only place where one can find such comprehensive information about athletes and sports medicine

Michel D’Hooghe, member of the FIFA Executive Committee and Chief Medical Officer of FIFA, expressed great pleasure in being part of the conference and visiting Aspetar specifically, given that it is a FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence. He congratulated the organisers on the success of the conference and the timeliness and importance of the topics it covered, particularly those related to football.

On football injuries specifically, D’Hooghe said: “Across the last ten FIFA World Cup tournaments and specifically the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, the injuries record reached 2.7 injuries per match. However, this figure has decreased to 1.7 injuries per match recently. Such progress has been achieved due to a number of factors including stricter referees, better player preparation, and, most importantly, improvements in the provision of medical care services.”

Dr. Philippe Neyret, President of ISAKOS, thanked Aspetar for organising this conference, stating: “Aspetar is truly unique, as it is the only place where one can find such comprehensive information about athletes and sports medicine, presented by a group of leading experts who are doing fantastic work in this institution”.

The conference discussed a number of important medical topics that present challenges to football professionals and enthusiasts, with special attention to knee injuries. These topics included ACL injuries, screening for hip and groin pain in football players, and the epidemiology of football injuries in the Middle East.

Aspetar regularly attracts elite athletes from around the world who benefit from the hospital’s experts and advanced technologies in orthopaedics and sports medicine. In 2009, Aspetar was accredited a “FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence” by F-MARC, and an “IOC Research Centre for Prevention of Injury and Protection of Athlete Health” in 2014, all of which have helped to make Aspetar a preferred destination for the world’s elite athletes.