Playing football entails rapid accelerations, sudden and quick stops, and direction changes that stress the body in different ways leaving it prone to injury.

Moreover, as players tend to use only one leg to kick, the game tends to be physically unilateral. This means that various tensions and asymmetries may translate into damage to the muscle-skeletal system.

Osteopathy produces specific diagnoses by carrying out orthopaedic and osteopathy tests. Furthermore, a detailed history may be prepared and analysed so as to understand the lesion mechanism. The osteopath also intervenes on other factors – such as prevention – because a host of injuries originate as primary lesions or dysfunctions, which when left untreated or uncorrected lead to injuries during playing or training.

In the context of a football team, the osteopath’s main mission is to prevent injuries by correcting asymmetries and structural dysfunctions while striving to re-establish the athlete’s normal balance (homeostasis) at the visceral, endocrine, neurologic, immunologic and structural levels.