Easter injuries expose UHA on medical front
Wananchi coach Innocent Mbabali lifts injured Peace Makoha during a league encounter with Gazelles last year. Without any organized medical assistance in place, this improper trend has continued. PHOTO BY AMINAH BABIRYE
KAMPALA.
The Easter Hockey Open is becoming synonymous with serious injuries.
Not that they are not expected but Uganda Hockey Association (UHA) and its members have done little to address injuries, which are a product of indiscipline on pitch, poor fitness, ‘lenient’ umpiring and the entire fraternity’s reactive approach to pertinent issues.
On Friday, in a ladies’ match that gradually grew excessively physical, Kampala Hockey Club (KHC) Swans lost 1-0 to Wananchi.
However, the major talking point was when the latter’s midfielder Peace Teopista Anyango, needed over 40 minutes to stop bleeding from her cheek after taking a hit from KHC’s Pamela Agaba towards the end of the 20-minute first half.
Shockingly, KHC’s Patricia Namubiru – also a clinical practitioner – had to leave the pitch to attend to Anyango, using a half empty first aid box borrowed from Weatherhead, as her side chased the game.
Shortly after, KHC’s Vicky Auma was involved in a head-on-collision with a Wananchi forward that left Namubiru with another patient to attend to. Namubiru was later joined by teammate Desire Mukisa and Deliverance Church’s Grace Musimenta.
After the match, KHC’s Susan Nabiryo complained of chest pain which begged the question; are clubs and the association taking players medical conditions seriously?
Hockey is one sport where no medical history of players is documented by clubs and the association and despite the physical nature of the game, only Weatherhead own a first aid kit while there is never an ambulance or designated medical assistant in place.
Last year, KHC coach Bernard Bwire predicted United States International University (USIU) would not return for the 2017 Easter Open because of the overly physical type of hockey played here.
That was after USIU’s James Mwangi sustained a cut on his chin in a brawl, which was waived off by an umpire, with Wananchi’s Innocent Mbabali. USIU watched another Wananchi girl rushed to hospital after collapsing on pitch.
They also saw Weatherhead captain Emmanuel Wabuyaka sustain a head injury as they lost 4-1 to KHC. Weatherhead were leading 1-0 when he was rushed to hospital.
“Grace, (Dr Emmanuel) Ewochu, Pauline (Achom), Desire and I are members of a new medical commission that will be empowered to meet players’ medical demands. Of course the job will be difficult because we need to invest our own money but we have to start somewhere,” UHA organizing secretary Saddam Hussein, promised.
