Skip to content

Student research opportunity with Aspetar in Qatar

​​​​Staff and students in the School of Sport and Exercise are being given the opportunity to work with Aspetar (Qatar), one of the world’s leading Sport Medicine hospitals. Aspetar were recently rated as the 2nd best Sports Medicine Institution in the world​, with the likes of Neymar recently visiting for testing after suffering an ankle injury for Paris St Germain. Staff in the School are developing a research relationship with the hospital and Adi Hammond, the first jointly funded research student between the two organisations, recently visited Qatar to map out his project. ​

Research student Adi Hammond said of his opportunity to work with Aspetar and of the recent trip: “Heading out to Aspetar Sports & Orthopaedic Hospital was a fantastic opportunity to not only see the world’s leading rehabilitation centre but also a chance to really get to know the institution that we are collaborating with to produce work on returning to play after ACL reconstruction. It is evident to see Aspetar leaves no stone unturned when it comes to facilities (some of the best in the world) and quality of the work produced.

“It was incredible to visit and see the facilities they have available, it would certainly be a clinicians dream to work there.

“Whilst there, I also attended the IAAF athletics conference which was filled with world renowned experts delivering leading industry knowledge over three days before watching a diamond league athletics event. I’d like to say a massive thanks to Prof De Ste Croix for taking me under his wing and accompanying me on this trip and to Dr Paul Read who made us feel at home and extremely welcome at Aspetar.”

Having experienced the wealth of data available at Aspetar, Adi has since decided to upgrade his Masters to a PhD. He intends to visit the hospital again in 2020 to collect further data for his study. Professor Mark De Ste Croix has been developing the relationship with Aspetar for a couple of years with Dr Paul Read, a former lecturer in Strength and Conditioning at the University and now Clinical Researcher at Aspetar.

Professor De Ste Croix said:
“This relationship provides us with the opportunity to access clinical populations of athletes recovering from injury and we are specifically working on developing and defining return to train and return to play criteria for elite athletes. As a world leading sports medicine hospital our partnership with Aspetar gives us access to data that we otherwise be impossible to be a part of.” ​