“Each year 1-1.5 million people attend an A&E department in Britain due to a sporting injury” (Nicholl et al 1991 cited in Boyce and Quigley 2004)”.

A substantial number of amateur sports athletes believe that the only treatment pathway available for them to get pain relief and advice is to attend A&E (Grimble et al, 1993) leading to approximately 5,600 a day Accident and Emergency (A&E) department attendances within the UK for sports related injuries (Cook et al, 2003). According to Falvey et al (2009) this accounts for the majority of the workload of an A&E department, with the highest number of attendances being on Monday as a result of weekend sports fixtures.

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