Table 4.

Main codes, subcodes and exemplary quotes on the theme ‘the context of Qatar Football’

Main codes	Subcodes	Quotes
Cultural context	Lifestyle Religious background Nutrition Sleep pattern	TD3: What time the player goes to sleep at 4 o’clock or 6 o’clock (am). During Ramadan, it is 7/8 am, and here we come for training at 3 (pm). No breakfast, no lunch the player is coming to training only with nothing in his stomach, (…) The quality, this is the first part of lifestyle including the sleep, the hydration, the nutrition, they don’t take care of all of this. This is my opinion.” Ph3: “The lifestyle. The lifestyle here is like a reverse lifestyle. Lack of sleeping, and I know he doesn’t feel like he has energy. It is like mmm I don’t know; he needs more energy for work, more energy for… He cannot give himself more than he can, or what you ask him. So many injuries happen because of lack of concentration, and lack of energy. And we have other players. They have a good lifestyle. The big number I don’t know the percentage, but many players’ lifestyles are not good. Not good. It’s a risk factor.” FC3: “Lifestyle. If they go to bed at 3 am, Then at 3 pm, they wake up. At 3 in the afternoon, they take only one bread and one coffee, and they come directly to the training session. This is Arabic culture.” Ph2: “It’s two parts, you know. With professional players, it’s very easy, very easy to implement because you give them one program, they will follow by the book you know. For… they are supposed to be professional, but I will call them ‘’local players’’. You give the program he will do it for one week, and then he will start to skip two, three days.”
Environmental context	Climate Humidity Heat	Ph1: “Mm, the weather. The field, quality of the grass. The grass, for example, is ok. Right now, we are training in Aspire. The grass is good is soft, but before in (name club), it was too hard. “Football shoes, I don’t like many football shoes, because I was a football player, and in my opinion the new football shoes it is not adequate for this kind of weather or field. I mean because it is too hot, so the field is… I mean, it is dry, it is hard, and they are using the same football shoes like in Europe.” TD2: “So, it can be the field because, for example, in the last game, everybody told me that ‘I have pain in the tendons. The field wasn’t very technical, very stable (…) So, this is a little tough for athletes.” HC1: “It s was the round that they played outdoors, and they played the 1st rounds in an airconditioned stadium with a temp of 19 degrees [Celcius). And last weekend was the 1st round which we played outside with a temperature of 40 degrees and 80% humidity. So 90 min full action, and we had a lot of injuries. ‪In these conditions… So, we prepare a plan on how we can minimize the risk of injuries and fatigue, and I think fatigue related to heat is probably, here, the biggest factor.”
Competition context	League Training and load	HC1: “So, it depends on the player, on the situation, it depends where we are in the league, it depends on the importance of the game. So, it is a lot of things. Maybe it is the last game of the season, you need to win, so you take the chance. Maybe now it’s the beginning of the season, so I don’t want any player to have a long-term injury. So, it is cleverer to listen to the guys and be careful, because it is a long way to the end of the season and we don’t want to lose a player at this period. Maybe when it is closer to the end, maybe you take more risks, but at this stage in time, I think it’s the way you play the game.” Ph4: “Recovery for regeneration, physical regeneration, they don’t have enough time for this thing. And also, the more important thing is, if you want to work, for example, the prevention in our case, every 3 days we have a game. This is impossible, even if you ask the coach. The only prevention that we can do, as I told you, is specific (…). But if you tell me you will work Nordic or Copenhagen? He [coach] will not accept it, even the player, he will say ‘I am tired I cannot, exhausted.’” TD2: “Because always here many competitions also. (…) it’s a small cup, big cup, and champions leagues. So, yes many.
Team context	Individual experiences Education and background	FC3: “By years, experience by years. What I have now as experience, I didn’t have it 10 years ago. So, it is something like; you get by the time because you also had a bad experience. Like why I didn’t take the player out before the training? So, I am not going to take the risk that it is going to happen again.” Ph1: “We can explain to everyone, but at the end, each person they can interfere and give their own experience or their comments, related to the prevention.” Ph3: “For me, for example, I have some coaches that are cooperative with us. They understand the staff, all the staff. And, we have some coaches that their schools are ‘’work, work, work, and work.” HC1: “Second is the education. So, I come from a medical background, so I listen to people who have professionalism in these areas. If they say this player is close to being injured, and you have to be careful, then I listen. Sometimes I disagree, but I listen, and normally they are right, and normally, in the long term, it is better to listen.” HC3: “Sometimes coaches, unfortunately, don’t want to listen to anyone, they just think about the result and the matchday, and it is not nice.” Ph3: ‘We had one physical coach, well, his coach also was not easy. He didn’t want to understand what is a prevention program.”