Football is the world’s most popular sport. The beautiful game is evolving at an astonishing pace, both on and off the field. Modern football has become a high‑intensity, year‑round activity, marked by congested competition calendars and increasingly limited recovery periods.
For the first time, the FIFA World Cup 2026 will be hosted across three different countries—the United States, Mexico, and Canada—and will feature an unprecedented number of matches.
Today, players most often arrive at a World Cup carrying a significant cumulative load of match exposure, travel fatigue, and overuse injuries.
Under these circumstances, the role of sports medicine at the FIFA World Cup 2026 will extend far beyond acute injury care. Medical teams will be required to integrate load management, recovery optimization, illness prevention, and psychological support into a cohesive performance‑health strategy. Injury prevention will remain central to this mission.
At the World Cup level, the true challenge is not a lack of knowledge, but rather the implementation of that knowledge under intense pressure.
Sports medicine professionals must balance evidence‑based protocols with the realities of short preparation periods, tactical demands, and diverse coaching philosophies.
Success will depend on strong interdisciplinary collaboration and clear communication between medical staff, performance teams, coaches, and technical leadership.
Environmental and logistical challenges will further shape medical practice. Multiple host countries, varying climates, different time zones, and long travel distances will introduce complex physiological stressors. Managing heat exposure, hydration, sleep optimization, and circadian rhythm disruption will be critical.
In this context, sports medicine will no longer function solely as event support. Instead, it will serve as a central pillar in safeguarding performance, health, and the long‑term welfare of elite footballers.
As part of the preparation for the FIFA World Cup 2026, the Aspetar Sports Medicine Journal offers its readers a collection of excellent update papers.
Topics in football medicine are presented across six sections, reflecting the multidisciplinary approach that is characteristic of the Aspetar Sports Medicine Journal. On this occasion, we have chosen not to highlight any single section or individual paper, as all contributions are of excellent quality. We leave it to our readers to discover and enjoy them.
I invited our respected colleagues from around the world—leading experts in football medicine—to contribute to this issue. We thank them sincerely for sharing their knowledge with our readers. We are particularly grateful for the support of the President of the FIFA Medical Commission, Dr Andrew Massey, and his colleagues for providing such high-quality papers.
I also invited two esteemed colleagues from Aspetar, Dr Celeste Geertsema and Professor Cristiano Eirale, to serve as guest editors for this special issue. I would also like to thank them for their hard work and dedication.
Finally, we are pleased to feature the photography of Dr Liesel Geertsema, a valued member of our editorial board, whose work appears throughout this issue. We also congratulate her on having won the Rising Talent Award in the Travel Photographer of the Year competition, a recognition that speaks to her remarkable talent and passion for exploring and documenting the world.
In addition to these excellent papers, I would strongly recommend an inspiring interview with Hassan Khalid Al-Haydos, captain of the Qatar national team, particularly as Qatar will be participating for the first time in its history in a FIFA World Cup held outside the country. I would also like to draw your attention to the latest Al-Resalah that encapsulates National Sports Day, where Fai Al-Naimi explores the evolution of this tradition and the energy that defines it.
In the end, the success of sports medicine at the World Cup will not be measured solely by matches completed or injuries avoided, but by how effectively the tournament reinforces a fundamental principle: that protecting the health of players is essential for the sustainable future of football.
I hope you enjoy reading this issue.
Prof Nebojsa Popovic MD PhD
Editor-in-Chief
Cristiano Eirale MD PhD
Chief of Sports Medicine
Celeste Geertsema MD
Sports Medicine Physician