The impact of in-season national team soccer play on injury and player availability in a professional club

This study investigated the impact of in-season national team duty on injury rates and player availability in a professional soccer club. Time-loss injuries and exposure time during club and national team duties were recorded prospectively over 5 seasons (2009–2014). A time-loss injury was sustained by 37.7% of squad members participating in national duty, all injuries occurring in match-play. The incidence (per 1000 h exposure) for national team player match-play injuries did not differ (P = 0.608) to that for all players in club competitions: 48.0 (95% CI 20.9–75.5) vs. 41.9 (95% CI 36.5–47.4), incidence rate ratio = 1.2 (CI: 0.8–2.4). The majority (58%) of national team injuries resulted in a layoff ≤1 week. Of all working days lost to injury generally, 5.2% were lost through injury on national duty. Injury incidence in the week following national duty was comparable (P = 0.818) in players participating or not: 7.8 (95% CI 3.6–12.0) vs. 7.1 (95% CI: 4.6–9.6), incidence rate ratio = 1.1 (CI: 0.7–2.7). While approximately 40% of participating players incurred a time-loss injury on national duty, no training injuries were sustained and injuries made up a negligible part of overall club working days lost to injury. Following duty, players had a similar injury risk to peers without national obligations.     

'Far out man?' gay and bisexual male teachers in the higher education marketplace

As part of a broader study of masculinity in higher education this paper considers the experiences of gay and bisexual male teachers. It examines the ways in which gay and bisexual men construct and manage their identities within a shifting higher education context in which 'new managerialist' discourses appear to be replacing discourses of equity. Gay and bisexual men are variously positioned in relation to the new managerialism. As men they are implicated in the masculinist tendency of market and managerialistic initiatives yet as gay/bisexual men they seem to have much to lose from the implicit political project of the market and the moral shift it signifies. The situation is further complicated in that for some gay and bisexual men new managerialism may offer progressive possibilities in its transformation of the old elitist and exclusive culture of traditional higher education. Through the analysis of in-depth interviews, the paper considers the relationship between gay and bisexual male teachers identity work and the transformative processes and practices within which they are embedded. In particular the paper attempts to understand the men's cultural stances in relation to a notion of an inclusive higher education based on democratic pluralistic values.     

Public Deliberation and Governance: Engaging with Science and Technology in Contemporary Europe

Whilst public engagement in decisions concerning science and technology is widely extolled, research shows that the application of deliberative democratic theory remains – at least in Europe – highly constrained. Science and technology policy requires closer attention to the wider context of governance and the compatibility of public deliberation with established modes of policy-making.