Player Injury Fund

Player Injury Fund.

Important information that all players should be familiar with,

If you have not paid your full club membership by March 31^st. you are not covered by the club injury fund. Only fully paid up members are covered by the club injury fund for any injury sustained during training or matches.

If a player gets injured during a match the referee must be informed, as the fund administrators (Willis) who operate the fund insist on a referee’s report stating the player was injured during a match. If it happens during training inform a mentor or club official immediately.

The fund administrators now strongly advise that  “Players are  responsible for making sure they have enough insurance cover themselves“. They further advise that if a player has private health insurance they initiate a claim with their private health insurers first.

In simple terms if a player decides to undergo private medical treatment as the result of getting seriously injured while representing the club, the scheme may cover the medical costs up to €4,500 and anything above that limit will need to be paid for by the injured player seeking private treatment.

Generally speaking most injuries are covered under the €4,500 limit, but for more serious injuries involving surgery or overnight hospital stays the limit of €4,500 can be exceeded.

The payment for any loss of wages is strictly in line with the scheme guidelines and is applicable to adults/youths in full time employment i.e. not less than 16 hours weekly.

The scheme pays nothing for the first week, for weeks 2-4 it pays up to €200 per week and for weeks 5-52 it pays up to €400 per week.  The scheme only provides cover for non-recoverable costs of the net basic wage, Social Welfare/Income Protection will be considered as recoverable income and will be deducted from the basic net wage figure.

The responsibility lies with the injured player to contact the Social Welfare Department in New Street to initiate a claim there at the earliest opportunity.

The player injury fund nationally is now under severe pressure due to the high number of claims it is experiencing and a substantial loading will be meted out to clubs at team registration stage who are shown to have a high number of claims over the last 3 years.

Now that the new season has commenced and training has begun, every player must ensure they are fully paid up members by March 31^st. If further information is required please contact any club officer for further details.