'I Coach Them, I Treat Them, I Listen to Them: The Multifaceted Role of the Coach - a Qualitative Study on Stakeholders Perspectives on Injury Prevention and Management in Senegal (Africa)

Why It Matters

The findings expose a critical health‑service gap in low‑resource sport environments and identify coaches as the linchpin for athlete safety, guiding policymakers and international partners ahead of the Dakar Youth Olympics.

Key Takeaways

• Coaches act as primary injury preventers and first responders
• Prevention relies on intuition, lacking formal training or protocols
• Traditional healers preferred for affordability, sometimes clash with modern care
• Gender bias and mental‑health stigma restrict women athletes’ treatment
• Low‑cost, culturally tailored coach education essential for sustainability

Pulse Analysis

Senegal’s push toward hosting the 2026 Youth Olympic Games shines a spotlight on a broader challenge facing many low‑resource nations: translating global sports‑medicine advances into everyday practice. While high‑income countries benefit from standardized injury‑prevention programs, Senegalese elite athletes often depend on ad‑hoc measures rooted in personal experience. Financial scarcity, limited medical infrastructure, and unpredictable training environments create a landscape where injuries can quickly derail careers, underscoring the urgency for context‑specific solutions that bridge the gap between evidence and reality.

At the heart of this ecosystem are coaches who wear multiple hats—trainer, physiotherapist, counselor, and sometimes even financial sponsor. This task‑shifting mirrors global‑health strategies where non‑clinical personnel deliver basic care, yet it also reveals a systemic shortfall: coaches lack formal education in injury assessment, neuromuscular training, and mental‑health support. Language barriers further restrict access to internationally vetted resources, as most guidelines are published in English. Providing low‑cost, French‑language curricula and practical workshops can empower coaches to implement proven interventions like FIFA 11+ or Get SET, while respecting local cultural nuances and resource constraints.

Policymakers, sport federations, and development agencies can leverage the momentum of the Youth Olympics to institutionalize these changes. By investing in community‑based training hubs, integrating traditional healers into a coordinated care pathway, and enacting gender‑sensitive policies, Senegal can build a resilient sports‑health infrastructure. Such reforms not only improve athlete welfare but also set a replicable model for other sub‑Saharan nations seeking to balance elite performance aspirations with sustainable health outcomes.