O'Neill says new kick-outs will reduce injuries

The experimental provision that football goalkeepers use a tee for kick-outs has been commended by one of the GAA's top medical advisers. Dr Pat O'Neill, chair of the recently appointed player welfare work group and a member of the medical and anti-doping sub-committee, says that kicking off the ground has definite potential to cause injury.

A sports injuries specialist, the former Dublin manager said that he had experience of treating goalkeepers who had sustained or aggravated injuries from kicking out.

"Forceful kicking off the ground has an impact because the player is going for distance. It's not like a free, where the kicker is likely to be tapping the ball for accuracy. It can lead to problems with the knee, or the groin or the front of the thigh."

O'Neill believes that the trial of teeing up the kick-out will have a positive effect from a couple of perspectives.

"Absolutely. I'm not sure that the safety issue was as foremost in their minds as the protection of pitches, but ground preservation assists the safety environment, in other words the external factors like potholes or divots in the playing surface.

"Then there are the internal factors, like the biomechanics of kicking the ball. You see it particularly in kids who aren't skeletally mature, whose growth plates haven't fused. But in general kicking off the ground involves catching the studs and transmitting that force up the leg."

Next month O'Neill will be involved in the staging of a conference in Athlone for GAA medical practitioners.

Among the issues for discussion will be the anti-doping protocols that must be implemented by team doctors, the question of sudden death amongst sportspersons as well as a presentation on eye injuries.

Footballers Enda McNulty (Armagh), Ryan McMenamin (Tyrone) and Pádraig Clancy (Laois) were yesterday invited to join the All Stars on tour in Hong Kong next month.

The three players have been called up as replacements for the tour and will take part in an exhibition match that will be played between the 2003 All Stars and the 2004 All Stars on January 22nd.