The Football Injury and Wellbeing Handbook
FA first aid training covers the emergency. This handbook covers everything after it: recognising what has happened, managing the days and weeks that follow, rehabilitating properly, and knowing when a player is ready to return. Written for coaches, players and parents without clinical training, with a glossary for every medical term we cannot avoid.
Baseline principles
How injuries happen, principles of treatment, stages of healing, return to play, and diversity in football.
Prevention of injury and illness
General prevention, a focus on concussion and ACL injury, and preventing short- and long-term illness.
Injuries in football
The body-part guide: prevention, management and return to play, area by area. Open the injury guide →
Playing with medical conditions
Asthma, diabetes, heart conditions, cancer, mental health, and playing in heat and cold.
Football health in different populations
Female football, disability football, and football through the life course.
Confidence for the moments coaches worry about most
Recognise
Know what to look for when a player is injured or unwell.
Respond
Take sensible first steps and know when to seek further help.
Prevent
Use practical approaches that reduce the risk of injury and illness.
Support
Help players return safely and look after their wider wellbeing.
Club editions
Your badge on the cover, your colours inside, and your local health services in the front matter, so every family gets a book that names the pitch they stand on.
Publication
First edition launching on 11 September 2026 at the BSLM Annual Conference in Warwick, and presented at the FSEM Scientific Conference in Dublin.