Sport is big part of a lot of people’s lives. Football is probably England’s most popular sport – on a Sunday in particular, a lot of people go to their local playing fields to compete against each other in regional league matches. Even if people aren’t playing sport, they are watching it or reading about it. There are numerous channels on television which are dedicated to sport, and even the channels we find on freeview for example have a substantial content which focuses on sport or showing sporting events. In the newspapers, the back pages are dedicated to sport, and some papers even have dedicated sporting pullout pages.
There can be little doubt that sport is massive in England, and there are a lot of people who are in someway involved in sport; whether that it through direct participation or alternatively a keen interest.
For those who play sport, you will be all too familiar with the fact that injuries do occur while you are participating. Some are minor and go away quickly, whilst others are worse and may require you to have a number of weeks, or even months on the ‘sidelines’. In most cases these injuries will occur by chance and will not involve an interaction with any third party. But: what if you suffer an injury because of someone else? Even if this injury is caused by accident, can you still make a claim for compensation?
It is a tricky one. We all know that when we play most contact sports there is going to be just that – contact. For instance, if we play rugby, we know that it is highly unlikely that we will come off the pitch at the end with a bright white shirt and untouched. It just is not going to happen. The same can apply for football – we know at some point someone will put in a challenge against us. This can be said for many sports. From this there is an inevitable risk of injury. We are aware of this risk when we play sport, and we accept it by continuing to play. So, if we know we might get hurt, does that mean we cannot make a claim for compensation?
Simply put – no. Whether you are entitled to compensation for your sporting injury will all depend on how the injury was sustained. For this very reason if you have sustained a sporting injury and believe that you may be entitled to compensation, the best course of action is to speak to a quality injury lawyer with experience in this area of law who can provide you with some free advice in relation to whether you have a claim or not.
In sport, those who participate owe each other a duty of care to avoid injuring another competitor. This is not to say you cannot tackle or touch each other, but to say that you should not purposely injure someone. It really depends on your sporting arena. If you are a boxer, then yes, you can punch your opponent. But if you are a footballer, you cannot. It is not part of the game. In football, yes, you can make a slide tackle; but you cannot purposely go in chest high to injure someone. A mistimed tackle is one thing, but purposely trying to break your opponents’ leg is another. In such cases you may well have a claim for compensation. If you are out of your sport and your injury has had an affect on your lifestyle or your work for example, a compensation claim could well be achievable.
Please get in touch with The Injury Lawyers for a no obligation, free chat to see if you have a claim.
