Acknowledgments

Allow me to thank you for being part of this wonderful sports medical book family. I cherish the privilege to have partnered with you to blend science with practice.

This page allows us to say ‘thank you’. We open with a quote from one of our chapter authors because it captures the spirit of the large and diverse team that has created Volume 1 of this fifth edition of Clinical Sports Medicine. Every single colleague went beyond the call of duty during their busy lives at the peak of great careers.

This highlights that the global sports medicine and sports physiotherapy community is generous and patient focused. Our community shares the wonderful compelling goal of making life better for athletes and for recreational individuals. We share a passion: the joy of physical activity, the love of sport, the conviction that these are elements of medicine at its very best. Here we say ‘thank you’ to every contributor for allowing us to guide your passion into these pages and the digital elements that complement them.

On the topic of professions in our field, please indulge us a personal note from two medical doctors. To leaders in physiotherapy/physical therapy, we thank you for having embraced the value of physical activity and sport from your profession’s beginnings. Physiotherapy/physical therapy has established a very substantial evidence base, along with other disciplines, so that our field—sport and exercise medicine—is recognised as a critical pillar in health. The PEDro database is just one example we can point to if people ask ‘What is the scientific basis of the field?’ Your profession has been generous to us personally by educating us, and by welcoming us to share our humble opinions with you. We are honoured and grateful to the President of the World Confederation for Physical Therapy for reading this edition and vouching for its value in the foreword and on the back cover. Dr Emma Stokes, we salute you and wish you every success as you execute a shared vision for a very proud, difference-making profession.

Specific thanks for this edition of Volume 1—Injuries go to chapter co-authors listed, with their affiliations, on pages xxx–xxxv. We are both humbled and privileged to be sharing cover authorship with seven amazing colleagues and friends: Ben Clarsen, Jill Cook, Ann Cools, Kay Crossley, Mark Hutchinson, Paul McCrory and Roald Bahr. Vicky Earle, our medical illustrator, is part of this book’s DNA (three editions now).

The University of British Columbia (Department of Family Practice—Faculty of Medicine, as well as the Faculty of Education—School of Kinesiology) provided essential support (KK), as did La Trobe University in establishing the Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre.

We have passed the silver anniversary of McGraw-Hill writing a snail-mail letter to Peter Brukner in 1990 wondering if he thought a sports medicine book might be in order; we are very fortunate for more than 25 years of remarkable support. Nicole Meehan and Robert Ashworth are passionate about this book. Isabella Mead and Yani Silvana always reached out with offers of help. The copy-editing team have added great value for the reader.

We dedicate this fifth edition to the Clinical Sports Medicine community. We are proud to be in a family of clinicians who are absolutely unwavering in prioritising patient care. Lastly, to our very, very patient friends and families, ‘Yes, it is finished (for now)’. Diana and Heather, thank you for the many editions you have shared us with. Let’s leave the conversation about the fifth edition of Volume 2—Exercise Medicine (for 2018 release) for another day.