The football kind of work accident: Cristiano Ronaldo

And now for a more sports-fan approach to occupational health and safety! When people think about the term "work accident", they tipically imagine an accident in an industrial setting. But this is a limited perspective of the issue: a work accident is any such event that occurs in the line of any kind of work. Let's then look at the effects of an accident in an atypical setting: football (or soccer, for the readers from the US).

You may have already heard about Cristiano Ronaldo (it's hard not to, with all the publicity)... the famous portuguese player that was hired by the spanish club Real Madrid in 2009, for an astronomical amount of money. If you're a fan of Manchester United, you've heard for sure, due to the controversy it generated. That transference gave him the title of "most expensive player in football history", up until the present moment, due to its value of £80 million (which is the same as saying €94 million or US$132 million). Preposterous sums, therefore. But that's not the issue here... on to the point. Recently, while playing for the Portuguese National Team, Cristiano Ronaldo sustained an ankle injury, which causes him to be out of action for probably around a month. Ouch indeed. Imagine the losses caused by such a high-price downtime, for the employers (economic) and the employee (physical and professional)! But just as a football player can hurt his feet when playing, you can hurt your hand, your head, your back, or just about anything else, in the course of your duty.

Of course, that's what insurance is for, no doubt. Any company (which a football team also is, after all) needs to have the mechanisms in place to ensure that the worker is compensated (its a weird example to be giving on this, but the man has his rights too, even if he makes more in an hour than most in a year) and has access to the medical care required to get better. I'm sure both the spanish club and the portuguese team do... but does YOUR company have them? It should. And you should be informed of what they are, just in case. In addition, most countries require that any worker, specially self-employed ones, have a professional health insurance, that covers personal damage and damage caused to others by eventual malpractice.

Besides these posterior compensations for business and worker, there should also be adequate support on site, to prevent a worsening of the injuries sustained... first-aid is usually mandatory. When Cristiano Ronaldo felt his ankle give way, he immediately notified the team medics, being replaced and medically assisted. Note that this is not a privilege of an expensive football player, though... its the right of ANY worker. Even if a medic cannot be present in every workplace, the first-aid kit should, and people should be trained to use it properly for the most common hazards.

These are not utopic ideals: they're actually the law in most places. And the fact that it's mixed with sport stuff? Well, that just makes it even cooler (especially if it better gets the point across). What's important: be safe, whether in work or in play!