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Player Welfare - Player Injury

In This Section:

1.  What is the GAA Injury Benefit Fund? 

2. Reporting an Injury & Registering a Claim under the Fund 

 

1. What is the GAA Injury Benefit Fund? 

 

An Overview


The GAA Injury Benefit Fund is a Self-funded benefit fund, funded entirely from GAA funds with no outside involvement. In effect it is a benefit fund, funded by members for the members. 


The GAA Injury Benefit Fund applies to Registered Players as per the Official Guide who play on a team registered with the GAA Injury Benefit Fund who incur accidental bodily injury while playing Hurling or Gaelic Football either in the course of an official competitive Fixture or an Official Sanctioned challenge match or in the course of an official supervised training session. There is no cover under the GAA Injury Benefit Fund for injuries sustained at unauthorised \ unofficial competitions, charity events, recreational activities and fundraisers.


Any player who makes an injury claim under the scheme must be a fully registered and paid-up member of their club.


It is important to state that the scheme is NOT an Insurance cover and does not seek to compensate fully for Injuries sustained but to supplement other Schemes such as Personal Accident or Health Insurance where applicable. Therefore, if a player is covered under another source, e.g., private medical insurance (VHI, Aviva, LAYA, Irish Life, etc.) or School Insurance (e.g., Allianz Pupil Personal Accident Insurance), they must claim through that source first.  The GAA Injury Benefit Fund is only in place to cover benefits which cannot be claimed elsewhere.  It is a benefit cover only and only provides cover for unrecoverable losses up to the limits specified.

  • If the player has cover under the Public Health System \ National Health Service, the player must avail of cover under the appropriate system before seeking to submit a claim under the GAA Injury Benefit Fund.
  • If the player has private medical insurance e.g., VHI, Laya Health Care, Irish Life Health, BUPA etc. or cover under any Personal Accident policy, a claim must be made with the player’s private medical \ personal accident provider for both inpatient and outpatient medical expenses. Therefore, the player must submit all of his original medical receipts to their private medical insurer \ personal accident provider. Once these are submitted and assessed, the private third-party medical insurer will assess the claim and provide an inpatient \ outpatient statement of account clearly stating the benefits that they have covered or not covered. A copy of this statement of account (Benefits Statement) must be submitted under the GAA Injury Benefit fund. 


In summary, the GAA Injury Benefit Fund is in place to cover benefits which cannot be claimed elsewhere. Therefore, if a claimant is seeking to claim benefit from the fund, they must exhaust all other avenues before making a claim under the GAA Injury Benefit Fund. Furthermore, the Injury Benefit Fund should not be used as a guarantee for the payment of expenses. Ultimately, the responsibility to ensure that adequate cover is in place lies with the individual member, commensurate with his \ her specific needs and members should not use the fund as their only recourse or be dependent on the fund to compensate them fully for any losses associated with the injury sustained. The playing of Gaelic Football, Hurling, Handball and Rounders’ involves the risk of Injury and it is each individual registered player’s responsibility to familiarise themselves with the terms and benefits of the GAA Injury Benefit Fund.

 

Please note there is NO cover for pre-operative physiotherapy. The only physiotherapy that maybe claimed for under the fund are treatments that are POST-OPERATIVE which have been medically prescribed. In the absence of surgery, there is NO cover for physiotherapy/associated treatments.

 


 There are specific terms, conditions and limitations attached to the GAA Player Injury Fund.  The GAA Injury Benefit Fund Summary Document explains in more detail how the Fund operates, its benefits and what is and is not covered. It is very important that any injured player/parent familiarises themselves with the contents of this document.



2. Reporting an Injury & Registering a Claim under the Fund

 

Reporting an Injury: 

If a player gets injured at a match, team managers need to ensure that the referee is informed of the injury during/after the match and that the referee is advised to note this in his report. Team managers should then report the injury to the Club Player Injury Administrator as soon as possible after the game.


If a player gets injured at training, he should inform the team management during or after the training session that he got injured. Team managers should then report the injury to the Club Player Injury Administrator as soon as possible after the training session.


Registering a claim:

Any Claim under the GAA Injury Benefit Fund must be formally registered with the GAA within 60 days of incurring the injury (If the injury is not registered within 60 days, no claim can be made).  Therefore, it is essential that the player or team coach/mentor notifies the Club’s Player Injury Fund Administrator or Club Secretary as soon as possible after incurring an accidental bodily injury in case it leads to a claim under the Benefit Fund. 

In order to initially register a claim under the GAA Injury Benefit Fund, the following information - ‘Injured Player & Injury details Form’ - needs to be completed and forwarded to the player injury fund administrator asap.

- Injured Player & Injury details Form - (see download files at foot of this page)

The following forms will also need to be completed, signed and forwarded to the player injury fund administrator as part of the claim.   

- Player declaration form (see foot of page)

- Medical Certification form (see foot of page)


Send the above information/documents to:

Orla O’Donnell, Club Player Injury Administrator

Email: Secretary.stsylvesters.dublin@gaa.ie   (please reference ‘Player Injury’ and the Player’s Name in the Subject line). 

 

Additional documentation/information will also be required depending on the claim type claimed.  This is determined by DWF Claims (Injury benefit fund claim handlers) who will request this via the club’s Player Injury Administrator who in turn will contact the claimant.   It is the responsibility of the player/player’s parent/guardian to ensure that all necessary documentation is completed and submitted when requested in order for the claim to be properly assessed and resolved.


Contact:

For further information, please contact 

Orla O’Donnell, Club Player Injury Administrator

Email: Secretary.stsylvesters.dublin@gaa.ie.   

(please reference ‘Player Injury’ and the Player’s Name in the Subject line)


DOWNLOADS:

 GAA Injury Benefit Fund Summary Document - 2022_2023 V3.pdf


This document explains in more detail how the Fund operates, its benefits and what is and is not covered. It is very important that any injured player/parent familiarises themselves with the contents of this document.  

 

Frequently Asked Questions HERE



Injured Player details DOWNLOAD

Player/Club declaration DOWNLOAD 

Medical Certification DOWNLOAD