Kumasi Asante Kotoko have the best qualified and competent medical team in the country compared to what pertains at other Premier and lower division football clubs.

In addition to employing a qualified physician and sports medicine expert, the team also has a professionally trained physical trainer and a nurse and recently appointing a qualified physiotherapist in the person of Jerry Pratt Newton.

This came to light during an interview with the Head of Kotoko’s Medical Team, Dr. Kwaku Boateng, who has been leading the club’s medical examination of new players. The team doctor said Kumasi Asante Kotoko have assembled some of the best medical brains in Ghana whose commitment to work remains undiluted adding that their work is constantly complemented by other medical professionals at some of the country’s hospitals.

“We have a qualified physiotherapist, Newton Jerry Pratt; qualified nurse, Boateng Eric; physical trainer, Awudu Nuhu and a qualified doctor. We are always prepared to give our best to the club. It is our professional calling and we are also helped by other professionals in the clinics and hospitals in the country” said Dr. Boateng.

The team doctor expressed the medical team’s profound gratitude to management. “It is important to thank management for helping us to go professional. I really have to make that clear. Management has been of great assistance. I cannot talk about Kotoko’s medical or health issues without acknowledging the support we have been receiving from management. We have a medical file on every Kotoko player and we have been doing things professionally” he stressed.

He expressed satisfaction with developments concerning the medical examination of the newly recruited players saying that they would send their report to management immediately the process comes to an end. “We will put everything into our system and immediately make copies of our report to management. It will be both hard and soft copies” the team doctor added.

Asked about the level of cooperation from the players being examined and those who were examined last season, Dr. Kwaku Boateng explained that all the players fully understand the essence of the medical team’s work. He however said because some of them were experiencing those tests for the first time many of the things appeared new to them.

He urged the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to encourage clubs to employ qualified medical teams saying that the health of footballers or any individual should not be compromised. 

By: Jerome Otchere