Table 3.

Main codes and exemplary quotes on the theme “It is all about teamwork”

Main codes	Quotes
Teamwork	TD1: “It is not really one boss. It is a group, teamwork, yes. Because the fitness coach is performing the warm-up, I don’t interfere too much but sometimes we can suggest exercises for groin or hamstring injuries prevention that he could integrate… but he is responsible.” FC1: “There is no one person… mm we are all involved in the same thing, each one has his own area, the doctor is the doctor, the physio is the physio, so each one provides the information from his area. We gather all the information together, and then we decide, depending on the case.” Ph3: “We are all part of the prevention process. Start with the players, the coaches, the fitness coach, the medical staff, the technical staff. We are all responsible.” TD4: “So, the prevention is a teamwork, like many other things; performance is a teamwork, and recovery is a teamwork.” HC3: “Who has the main responsibility? I think it cannot be one person. I don’t think it can. It is all of us. All of us. We have to take it. If someone is injured, we cannot throw the ball and say, you are responsible, we have to be with him [the player), and we have to take responsibility, all of us.”
Trust	Ph4: “The trust between the physio and the player is very important. With this, you can prevent any injury. Because if you feel he doesn’t have confidence in you, he will hide, he will not say: I have tiredness, I have pain, or I am not comfortable.” HC4: “I have a lot of confidence in the doctor [name doctor] and first physio at the club. I know that they are very good professionals they will take care a lot, this is very important.”
Cooperation	TD2: “First, they need to be altogether from both medical and technical staff sides. Just imagine as if the medical staff wants to do some prevention, but the technical staff is thinking of a different idea and focus. This might be challenging. But if it is important to do, both the technical and medical staff together and they want to do the same thing, to understand this is the best way to do it.” FC2: “… all the involved supporting staff around the player could have different ways to approach it, to do it, but all are involved in the injury prevention.” PH2: “Some of them they come, and they ask for our advice for help, some of them whatever you say they hear from one ear, and it goes from the other so… it is difficult to implement something when the other part is not willing to cooperate it is very difficult.”
Communication	PH2: “I think that you need to have a good understanding of good communication with the team, medical, technical, administrative staffs. They all need to sit together and discuss this issue and listen to each other, you know, questions like ‘’what do you feel is better?’’ or what about the training load?’’, ‘’what about the rest days?’’, ‘’do you think this program is good enough?’’, ‘’should we do double, or should we do a single training daily session?” FC3: “Once the physical training is our job, then we need to convince the coach, ‘’this player can train, this one cannot’’, ‘’this player can play and this player cannot, he is not ready to play the match’’. Once you convince the coach and you have arguments that what you are saying is true, you also reduce the risk. If you cannot convince the coach that this player is not ready to play, you also increase the risk of injury.” HC1: “… related to this, the communication in my experience is important because the coach is the guy in control of everything. it is a little bit humiliating when there is no direct contact or communication with the first coach… mm, so it is good to have a direct communication lane.”
Education	HC2: “Communication, talking to them [the players), not from us, maybe from people like you from(pointing at the interviewer who is a scientist, working in a sports medicine hospital)… Because ok the coach, they always look at him as a coach give them advice, he is someone they see every day, but when it comes from a specialist. specialist, like one of you guys, comes from Aspetar, a special day just for… and the risk of injuries show them examples on the videos, give them like… I don’t know examples like the history of players.” Ph4: “Is bringing meeting with all coaches, physical coaches and medical staff and presenting this, this is our protocol, and we want to do this at least one time per week, it will be like 20 min or 30 min. And this is very important, and we make an education session for them with the presentation, all coaches we invite them, we present them our project, ‘’we were working on this for years, and this is very helpful, with statistics and we explain for them the importance of such a program’’.”