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Story: Sports medicine and drugs

Fit to play?

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Fit to play?

This 2005 cartoon from the Press highlights the pressure on doctors to declare injured players fit to return to the field. From the 1970s onwards many sporting codes adopted tighter rules over injury prevention. However, with the development of professionalism, doctors were sometimes urged by coaches and management to allow recently injured players back into competition.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: DCDL-0004815

by Alistair Nisbet

Courtesy of Cartoon-yoo

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Peter Clayworth, Sports medicine and drugs – History of sports medicine, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/cartoon/41420/fit-to-play (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Peter Clayworth, published 24 April 2013.