Playing a sport these days can be an expensive business. Club membership fees in many sports are escalating rapidly while the growing sophistication of equipment and sports clothing is matched only by their rising cost.

Against this background, sporting enthusiasts could be forgiven for their reluctance to shell out any more of their hard-earned cash on their favourite leisure pursuit. But a growing number of sporting associations are urging their members not to overlook insurance and to make sure they are fully covered if things go wrong and they end up injured.

As anyone who has incurred one knows, sports injuries can be both painful and seriously inconvenient. Damage to a cruciate ligament, for instance, typically costs £3,500 (€4,450) and upward to repair and can mean the sufferer missing work for months. But the long public waiting list for the operation can be cut to weeks if the patient has the wherewithal to go private, which is where insurance can come in handy.

Where things go very wrong, and players end up disabled or dead, a lump-sum payout can be crucial to the quality of life of those injured or left behind.

"The day is gone when you could run an old dance and raise a few bob for someone," one industry source notes.

Most sports clubs and associations have insurance to meet their own needs and this often covers players up to a certain level. But club insurance may not always be enough to cover ongoing medical expenses and loss of wages. Some organise top-up schemes for their members or players but, where this is not available, brokers advise people to check what basic club cover is available to them and then consider topping it up themselves if necessary.

For those considering individual personal injury and accident cover, brokers will organise protection for anyone between the ages of 16 and 65. The premium charged is affected by two main things: the occupation of the person to be insured and the level of cover required.

"If you are office-based, you are less of a risk than someone who works on a building site," says Mr Fergal Kennedy, account executive with Lordan Magnier Insurance Brokers, which runs insurance schemes for soccer clubs and camogie players.

O'Driscoll O'Neil, another insurance broker that is active in the area, divides occupations into five categories, depending on the level of risk. Class one, the lowest risk group, includes those in professional or administrative jobs, and sedentary occupations such as accountants, clergymen, dentists, teachers and solicitors.

Class two, which includes salesmen, train drivers and retailers, covers those in non-manual occupations, while class three occupations involve light manual work, such as that carried out by bartenders, analytical chemists and nurses.

Class four covers those engaged in manual labour or the use of machinery, such as farmers, lorry drivers, builders and bricklayers. The last group is the special-risk category, including jobs such as those in the armed forces, oil and gas rig workers, and fishing industry workers.

Premiums also depend on the level of cover required. Usually a lump sum is payable in the event of death or for the loss of an eye or limb. Weekly payments are made to those who suffer temporary total disablement, while cover is also provided for medical and dental expenses.

According to Mr Niall O'Driscoll, managing director of O'Driscoll O'Neil, which provides insurance cover for some 2,200 soccer clubs countrywide, a basic top-up package would cost around £25 per annum for someone in a class one occupation, around £40 for someone in a class three job and £60 per year for a class four worker.

Such a package would include a lump-sum payout of £25,000, weekly payments of £50 and medical expenses cover of £100. When added to the typical level of cover provided by soccer clubs, it provides the player with adequate protection, Mr O'Driscoll says. "It means you don't end up in a situation where someone is getting £100 per week when they were earning £600."

However, those considering taking out insurance should also check existing household and health policies to see what cover they already have.

jmosullivan@irish-times.ie