Concern as injuries pile
Injuries continue to wreak havoc in the national athletics team after Nijel Amos became the latest casualty, suffering a tight quad before the 800-metre finals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Amantle Victor-Nkape (Montsho) and Christine Botlogetswe also suffered injuries in Tokyo. Athletics coach, Justice Dipeba said Amos had a tight quad and the physiotherapists did all they could to manage it.
“He thought it was not bad but I think we could see from the results that it affected him. We all know he could do way much better than he did. It is very unfortunate but things like this do happen in sports,” athletics coach Justice Dipeba said.
Mmegi Sport sought Masa Physiotherapy Clinic managing director, Aotlhe Kenny Boiteto’s views on what makes local athletes susceptible to injuries.
“It could mean bad management of injuries, which could be caused by insufficient clinicians, untimely treatment of injuries or lack of holistic treatment of injuries,” he said.
He added that the team has been working with a masseur (massage therapist) who is not able to access, give a diagnosis and treat injuries. He said a masseur works under clinicians and does not have intensive knowledge of what is causing injuries.
“There is a need to have a clinician such as a doctor or a physiotherapist who could pick up injuries. What happens in the national team is that the team stays with a masseur all these years and when they go for international competitions that is when you get a doctor and a physiologist. They are not going to do miracles,” he said.
Boiteto said the athletics team should have an onsite physiotherapist all the time.
“This is where your administration comes in. It is sport science. When we are talking sport physiology, it is intense knowledge. Sport administrators should have enough
budget to get the best clinicians that deal with sport and they come at a price. If you are going to have a problem when that person tells you their charges, you go and get a physician, you are not solving a problem. It is a scientific problem that needs a scientific solution,” he said.
Boiteto said athletes would not perform better if injuries were not treated. He said the government should put more money into engaging clinicians.
“If you have that team of clinicians, they would work well with coaches. They could even pick things that cause injuries. Like if there is overtraining and inform the coach. When you are a clinician, you could tell a coach how much force, how much oxygen and other nitty-gritties of sport medicine,” he explained.
Boiteto said when a coach has clinicians when they realise the morale of a certain athlete is not up to par, they can get a physiologist.
“In conclusion, administration of the association needs to start taking serious effects of bad injury management in a team. Professionals need to be hired to manage sport teams both clinically and administratively. Stakeholders need to invest in the procurement of a well-experienced, well-equipped holistic multidisciplinary team medically.
Procuring clinicians only during competition would not bear fruit,” Boiteto said.
He added that there is a need for the country to set up its own High Performance Centre because sending athletes to Pretoria for two weeks would not yield results.
For his part, Botswana Athletics Association vice president, Oabona Theetso said they do not have the capacity to hire clinicians due to financial challenges. However, he said they would consider hiring clinicians if their cash flow improves.