State-of-art medical centre in Delhi soon
The capital may soon have a state-of-the-art medical centre, it was announced on the opening day of the four-day football medicine regional course here on Monday.
“It is important to have a Fifa Centre of Excellence in each and every member association of the world body. In Asia, we have one in Doha. Probably there will be one more set up in Delhi in the next couple of years,” said Dato Gurcharan Singh of the Asian Football Confederation’s medical committee.
Fifa’s chief medical officer Professor Jiri Dvorak, All India Football Federation general secretary Kushal Das and Dr Shaji Prabhakaran, Fifa regional developmental officer for South and Central Asia, were the others present on the occasion.
The course, a first of its kind organised by the AIFF in association with the AFC and Fifa, has participants from over 12 countries. There are 11 doctors from India as well.
Dvorak, who is currently working in tandem with former Brazilian striker Ronaldo helping him sort out his weight issue, said, “Medicine in football is of paramount importance. It is for the administrators to understand that a doctor is not merely there to deal with emergencies. It is much more than that,” he said.
Elaborating on his point, Dvorak cited the example of the 23-year old Bolton Wanderers’ Fabrice Muamba who collapsed on the pitch last year in March during their English Premier League match against Tottenham Hotspur.
“Muamba collapsed due to cardiac arrest. We all know how ghastly the incident was. It made his teammates (Nigel Reo Cocker) realise that ‘life is more important than football’. To avoid such incidents, we now have the PCMA (Pre-Competition Medical Assessment) which is being made mandatory before every tournament.”
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