In January 2018, the FIFA Medical Network was introduced in conjunction with the FIFA Diploma in Football Medicine. Together, they provide users with a regular topical, sports medicine content feed. The addition of “like” and “comment” functions encourages users to join the discussion.

In July, the Diploma Editor-in-Chief Mark Fulcher created the “FIFA World Cup Russia 2018” Group. Fulcher was the Venue Medical Officer in Saransk and regularly posted medical World Cup updates to this group. Users were invited to submit their comments and enter a draw to win an official World Cup matchball.

The first ten names drawn, listed below, have each won an official 2018 FIFA World Cup matchball:

Congratulations to all the winners – and thank you to all the FIFA Medical Network Group members who took part in the FIFA Medical Network Matchball Giveaway Contest.

Emmanuel Fadare Oluseye from Nigeria is one of the lucky winners. He is a physiotherapist with work experience in clinical physiotherapy and a special interest in manual therapy, sports and ortho physiotherapy, pain physiology and soft-tissue massage.

FIFA Medical: What was your post about and why did you select this subject? Emmanuel Fadare Oluseye: I posted about the presence of mental health issues among professional footballers and I gave two ways of dealing with it. Though I’ve had my own history with depression, I selected this subject primarily because the statistics on the prevalence of mental illness provided in the Mental Health module of the FIFA Medicine Diploma (which I'm currently taking) baffled me a lot. The numbers were significant to me and I felt something could be done about it. I went on to give examples of footballers who have opened up about their episodes with depression and performance anxiety. Because, truth be told, most people would rather keep quiet about their ordeals for fear of being viewed as weak. As an ardent fan of FC Barcelona, names of players from this club naturally came first to mind and it’s refreshing to see some of them speak up about it.

People suffer depression and are silent about it. People suffer a loss but just bottle it up. People suffer from all sorts of pressures, abuse and anxiety but there’s no one to talk to about these things. Next thing you know, someone who looked happy and free appears in the news because they’ve taken their lives.

I’d like to see a world where mental health issues are no longer trivialised or where victims are silenced by the stigma.

How did you learn about the FIFA Medical Network? From a post on a social media group I’m in.

How will the FIFA Diploma and Medical Network help shape your future goals? The truth is, they are already shaping them. Very recently, I made contact with a football team in the Nigerian Premier League and offered to join the club as a member of the medical team. I would like to utilise all the knowledge I’ve gained from the Diploma course practically and working there would give me the platform.

Also, I have been able to meet and network with sports physicians and other professionals from all over the world and it would be nice to do something together sometime in the future.