12 Mar What If I Get Injured?
It’s a subject or scenario all athletes and parents of athletes would rather avoid. But it’s also one of the most common questions asked of our team at Study & Play USA.
What if I get injured when on scholarship in the USA?
Let’s unpack this undesirable scenario some more…
Insurance
Firstly, all Study & Play USA student-athletes in college will have already been advised as to how to arrange health insurance to cover medical or physio costs associated with recovery prior to arrival into the USA. There are a wide variety of options both domestically and within the US to ensure that student-athletes enter the US college sporting arena with peace of mind. And the good news is that these policies are not expensive. Even better, sometimes these costs are absorbed within the scholarship offered by the University.
Scholarship
It’s only natural to assume that one’s scholarship comes into question should a student-athlete experience an injury. The good news is that this is almost never the case in our experience. Coaches and colleges understand that injuries are part and parcel of playing competitive sport. When they sign a student-athlete to scholarship, they understand that there is a chance that the student-athlete will succumb to short term or longer-term injury at some point across their four-year experience. Not only does one’s scholarship remain intact, but the colleges do a fantastic job of rehabilitating the student-athlete, supporting him or her through their recovery.
Eligibility
One of the wonderful rules in favour of injured student-athletes is that they can continue to progress their degrees, whilst not cutting into their four-year competition eligibility. In other words, an injured student-athlete can become a ‘redshirt’ athlete, effectively remaining on the team, on scholarship, but not losing any seasons of competition whilst inured. Once the injured student-athlete returns to competition, he or she will get that lost or redshirted season of competition back.
So, really, being injured isn’t so bad after all! Well, we’d all rather avoid it, however, if and when it happens at college in the USA, the college system is set up to support the injured student-athlete with adequate insurance, protecting his or her scholarship and preserving his or her eligibility.