Editorial
Football clubs and their ‘hive mind’: distributed situation awareness (DSA) and its role in injury management
British Journal of Sports Medicine, Vol.59, pp.1641-1642
2025
PMCID: PMC12772569
PMID: 41461404
Abstract
Correspondence to Dr Scott Mclean; smclean@usc.edu.au Injury rates in elite football remain persistently high, despite significant investments in sports science, medical infrastructure and performance technology.1 This longstanding problem highlights potential limitations of the systems, processes and data currently involved in understanding and responding to the complexity associated with football injuries. Emerging qualitative investigations, particularly into the communication of performance teams, demonstrate important considerations for injury risk reduction frameworks.2 Shifting attention towards how awareness is shared, connected and acted on across the complex, interdisciplinary systems (ie, performance, medical, coaching, management) that define modern football clubs requires a pro-active approach.3 One concept offering explanatory and applied utility in this context is distributed situation awareness (DSA).4 5 DSA recognises that no single individual actor holds all relevant awareness and that effective decision-making requires the integration of disparate, yet complementary, awareness across a system of actors.5 This editorial introduces DSA as a critical concept to improve injury prevention and management within elite football clubs. What is distributed situation awareness? DSA has been extensively applied in numerous safety critical domains such as aviation, healthcare and defence, where teams, organisations and even entire sociotechnical systems must make time-sensitive, high-stakes decisions in complex and dynamic environments.5 6 In such contexts, the emphasis of the DSA model is not on an individual’s ability to perceive and interpret information in isolation, but on the system’s capacity to develop and maintain a coherent understanding of its operational environment.6 This involves the connection of mental models, timely communication, role clarity and compatible use of information and technologies. Previous yet scarce applications of EAST in sport have demonstrated its utility in modelling DSA and identifying key nodes (ie, tasks, actors), information bottlenecks and pointing to opportunities to optimise DSA and performance.14 Improving player health and performance in the Premier League and elite football will not come solely from more data, better algorithms or increased specialisation.
Details
- Title
- Football clubs and their ‘hive mind’: distributed situation awareness (DSA) and its role in injury management
- Authors
- Scott Mclean (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Centre for Human Factors and Systems SciencePaul Salmon - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Centre for Human Factors and Systems ScienceMitch Naughton - University of Newcastle AustraliaTom Page - WBAFC-UKDrust Barry - University of BirminghamMichael Brownlow - The Football Association
- Publication details
- British Journal of Sports Medicine, Vol.59, pp.1641-1642
- Publisher
- BMJ Group
- Date published
- 2025
- DOI
- 10.1136/bjsports-2025-111249
- ISSN
- 1473-0480
- PMID
- 41461404; PMC12772569
- Copyright note
- © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2025. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ Group.
- Organisation Unit
- Centre for Human Factors and Systems Science
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991191489402621
- Output Type
- Editorial
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web Of Science research areas
- Sport Sciences