Stefaan Vossen: Chiropractic & beyond in the player care ecosystem

SPECIALIST: Vossen has grown from a Chiropractic background.

Professional football can cause injury . Whether it's the ankle, knee or groin, a player can go from an annoying niggle to a written-off season. With football injuries varying from player to player according to body type; predisposed conditions and even position, appropriate treatment at the right time is paramount.

Chiropractic is becoming more commonly used for injury treatment in football. Looking at the musculoskeletal system, Chiropractors diagnose, treat and prevent associated disorders.

A leading chiropractor is Doctor Stefaan Vossen. From a large family of medical professionals, he had influence & reference constantly around him. The family consists of 20 clinicians and doctors, including his uncle Dr Jean Pierre Meersseman, the former Medical Director of AC Milan Football Club and founder of MilanLab .

Dr. Stefaan Vossen

- Vossen is the Clinical Director of CoreClinicsUK in Hatton, Warwickshire

- He specialises in rehabilitation and spinal manipulative techniques

- Has worked on injury prevention with over 250 professional footballers

- Became the deputy clinical director of MilanLab

By football4football

His parents encouraged learning, triggering a journey beginning in Physiotherapy. From there he developed a fascination in a multitude of areas including movement disorders, back pain and gait mechanics. This led Vossen to train as a Chiropractor.

Still, his development didn't come without doubt. The pressure of a successful family of specialists could have stifled him, instead, it acted as a spur.

Fortunately, Vossen had the opportunity to be mentored by some of the best. Meersseman showed him key insights and fundamental theories. Many of them behind the conceptual processes of MilanLab.

Insights

MilanLab - The impossible project that changed football performance

The aim was to stop injuries, as well as treating them. Medical care was no longer sickness care, it was now health care. Meersseman preached good physical, psychological and social wellbeing were essential for a footballer to influence injury prediction and prevention. Vossen experienced this for the first time within MilanLab's research environment.

It became no longer just critical to recover from injuries as quickly as possible, it also became about keeping them out of the physio room.

Clinical Director at CoreClinicsUK

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Stefaan Vossen to football4football

As well as his varied skill set, Vossen adopted a questioning mindset. A perception that challenged everything he learnt and knew. He had a  vision of the concepts at MilanLab in the real world; he wanted to bring the same thinking to everyone, not just AC Milan footballers.

Putting it into practice in the UK, Stefaan Vossen founded Core Clinics in 2009. As a practice in Warwickshire, it's made up of 30 clinicians from various fields, focused on Sports performance and patient wellbeing.

The clinic wanted to answer the same questions that MilanLab raised. Vossen wanted to expand on that research. He didn't just want to understand the problems influencing injuries, he wanted to find solutions.

A common value also underpinned his business. Maximising welfare, wellbeing, outputs and performance of the individual. Vossen this communicated to staff & practitioners. He wanted all to be led by this common concept, with common goals.

Core Clinics has become a success. Patients lists continually grow. The triumph's of MilanLab peaks the interest and the specialist treatment builds the relationship. Expansion now sees the clinic with over 10,000 patients, treating over 250 pro footballers.

Vossen now treats all types of people & athletes. He also helps football clubs manage their assets physically and mentally in a way that complements their day-to-day protocols.

As with MilanLab, Vossen aimed to extend playing careers. A purpose fueled by Meersseman for all those years. Some players had come to him distraught, with no way out of an injury. Vossen tasked himself to try and find a solutions.

I wish I’d have met Dr. Stefaan Vossen when I was 20. The importance he’s had on my body in the past couple of years has been immense. He’s been vital to me keeping fit.

English former professional footballer

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Danny Webber

Despite the success, Vossen still endeavours to question what he does. With his patients at the forefront, he strives to develop better and more refined solutions.

Although guided by the innovations of MilanLab, Vossen doesn't believe it could happen again. Not with the astronomical increase in technology costs. Instead, the answers to development in football performance injury research lie with cooperation.

The answer to a development in football performance research will lie in collaboration, and in having open platforms where clubs can actually share information.

Clinical Director at CoreClinicsUK

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Stefaan Vossen to football4football

All football clubs need to share their own high-tech injury research and diagnoses. This would allow trends to be monitored and solutions to be found. For football performance research to advance for all, as it did with MilanLab, this radically needs to change.

Thanks to Vossen, hundreds of footballers have been able to extend their careers and recover successfully from injury. Who knows what he could achieve next?

This article is part of a series of insights by Dr Stefaan Vossen. The football4football injury team will be releasing exclusive video interviews that share his thoughts and experiences.