Thumbs up for our very own high per­for­mance re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion cen­tre

Our local ath­letes can look forward to getting back in shape and rely on the services of a sports spe­cific re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion cen­tre which had been established to help them re­cover from sports in­juries. Kudos to Sarawak Sports Corporation (SSC) and Sarawak State Sports Council (MSN Sarawak) for establishing the centre because Sarawak is one of the few states that has a high per­for­mance re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion cen­tre that is aimed at help­ing in­jured ath­letes re­cover quickly and safely from sports re­lated in­juries and to re­turn to peak per­for­mance.

The high per­for­mance re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion cen­tre will facilitate our efforts to have a good High Per­for­mance Unit (HPU) that is located at the Pan­delela Ri­nong Aquatic Cen­tre in Petra Jaya and during its ini­tial op­er­a­tions in Jan­uary last year, it had catered to 109 ath­letes from 23 different sports.

Thus, our state ath­letes have ben­e­fit­ted from the var­i­ous phys­io­ther­apy ser­vices since then while some of them have even gone on to be­come podium win­ners and have been drafted into the na­tional squads. I congratulate both SSC and MSN Sarawak who collaborated with Rehab Concept in providing recovery services and assitances to our athletes who suffered com­mon sport in­juries such as back prob­lems, lig­a­ment strains and sprains, an­te­rior cru­ci­ate lig­a­ment and menis­cus tears, muscular strains and ten­donitis in the shoul­ders or dif­fer­ent mus­cles of the legs.

The establishment of the cen­tre itself is im­por­tant to us be­cause re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion after an in­jury will help ath­letes to re­sum­e train­ing as soon as pos­si­ble and our ath­letes need to be in­jury-free and physically fit to pose a strong chal­lenge at Sukma Jo­hor next year and in other com­pe­ti­tions.

The working visit to the high per­for­mance re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion cen­tre was performed by our Assistant Minister of Youth and Sports Sarawak, YB Datuk Snowdan Lawan recently and he was accompanied by our acting permanent secretary, Puan Nancy Jolhie and CEO of SSC, Dr Ong Kong Swee.

The centre is manned by an ex­pe­ri­enced team of mus­cu­loskele­tal phys­io­ther­a­pists as well as sports ther­a­pists and the facilities include equip­ments im­ported from the US at a cost of around RM150,000. Our ath­letes who have re­cov­ered from their injuries will be re­ferred to the Strength and Con­di­tion­ing team of the HPU for a Re­turn to Sport pro­gramme to ensure they are competion ready.