Staying Active and Sports Injuries
The main reason people stop exercising is that they get hurt and never quite start again. How quickly you get seen decides how long you are out for, which is where cover earns its keep.
Who treats a sports injury?
Depends what you have done:
- Sports doctors - the first stop for anything that happened while training or playing
- Orthopaedic specialists - bones, joints, anything that might need surgery
- Physiotherapists - the actual recovery, and usually the part that decides whether it comes back
- Rehabilitation - for the bigger injuries and after surgery
Privately you book them yourself. That matters more than it sounds, because the gap between injury and diagnosis is usually where the weeks go.
When is it more than a knock?
Get it looked at rather than waiting if you have any of these:
- You could not carry on, or could not put weight on it
- You heard or felt a pop
- It swelled up within an hour
- The joint feels loose, or locks
- It is no better after a fortnight of rest
The last one catches people out. Two weeks of no improvement is the point at which resting stops being treatment and starts being delay.
The two things policies normally exclude
Most sports injuries are treated like any other injury on a health plan. There are two exceptions, and both surprise people who assumed everything was covered.
Organised and competitive sport is excluded. Cover does not extend to injuries from extreme sports, professional sport, competitive sport, or league-based activity. So a knee you hurt jogging or playing five-a-side with friends is covered; the same knee hurt playing for a league team is not. If you play in any organised competition, assume you are outside the policy and tell us before you rely on it – that is a conversation worth having before the injury rather than after.
Traffic and workplace accidents are excluded too. That catches cyclists and runners in particular, because an injury on the road can fall the wrong side of the line.
The traffic and work accidents add-on restores that cover, and it is included free on Sanitas Top Quantum and the Professional plans.
Where should you start?
If you are carrying something that has not settled in a fortnight, book someone rather than resting it for another month. And if you cycle or run on the road, check whether your plan covers you for that, because most do not without the add-on.
