German sports therapist Joerg Teichman has sent out a strong message to Cambodian coaches that rehabilitating an injured player is as vital as fine-tuning their playing skills.

In his closing remarks yesterday at the end of a two-day seminar on knee and ankle injuries in sport and their prevention he conducted at the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia headquarters, Teichman told an audience of several national coaches and their assistants not to treat injured players as “outcasts”.

“What an injured player needs is your attention and care, and you have a big responsibility towards the injured just as you have in enhancing their performances,” said Teichman, who has spent well over three decades in Asia, the last 16 years as head of rehabilitation at the Malaysian National Institute of Sports.

“Injuries are part of a sportsman’s life, and you have to deal with them. Always remember a player is injured not sick. And you can do something about it to help fast recovery and, in some cases, prevent aggravation.”

Frustration, Teichman contended, would normally be the first reaction from an anxious coach and a suffering player. But the follow-up should be quick acceptance and treatment leading to progress.

“Instead of letting an injured player sit at home and brood over his misery, coaches should make him feel that he is still part of the team. This immensely helps the healing process,” added the German.

“[The] body adopts to training – always keep this in mind, The same level and same intensity of training will not work,” he told the gathering, calling on the participants to keep assessing the biological limitations of the players while changing training patterns for better results.

Later, in an interview with the Post, Teichman described his two-day seminar as just the beginning.

“Coaches should develop special knowledge of sports medicine and sciences, which is fast evolving, and I am glad that Cambodia will soon have a full-fledged Sports Medicine and Science Centre,” he said.

NOCC secretary-general Vath Chamroeun said they were “extremely grateful to Teichman for voluntarily coming forward to help our coaches get a better grasp of a complex subject like sports medicine and its applications. This was indeed an eye opener for our coaches.

“We need his expertise and experience to guide us through. This is a priority sector for us and we expect bigger budgetary allocations for sports medicine and sciences.”