Editor,—The article by Dr Waddington and others¹ on the problems surrounding the appointment and qualifications of these personnel will come as no surprise to all who work with team sports in this country. It is a familiar story and the points raised are valid and in many aspects wholly desirable.

However, before it becomes established dogma that all club doctors must possess a postgraduate sports medicine qualification, may I raise a word in the defence of the generic GP. In doing so I confess freely to being a member of the one sport, one club breed described in the article, albeit in a different sport from Association Football.

What I believe a club and its players need from their medical advisor is immediate access to a medical opinion. The subject of the opinion is of course often sports injuries or sports related illness, but far from exclusively so. A local GP living and working in the immediate vicinity of the club is ideally placed for this task, which can at times be very demanding, at least in the urgency of the request. Club managers always need to know yesterday about the fitness of their players. Enthusiasm for the club can mitigate against the stresses of this demand which can often intrude into family life as well as work. Of course in providing that opinion, doctors must know their limitations, practising only within their competence and referring on appropriately for specialist opinion when required. But is this not part of a GP's standard job description? I suspect that all club doctors have built up a network of appropriate specialist colleagues, including sports physicians, who are rapidly able to provide that second opinion when required. It is this ability to use one channel for all its medical needs that …