This past May, ATI Physical Therapy’s Nathan Mansell, PT, DPT, ATC, traveled to Poland to cover the U-20 United States Men’s National Team at the 2019 U-20 FIFA World Cup. Nathan has become a familiar face around the U.S. National Team, having covered multiple domestic camps including the 2018 FIFA U-20 World Cup qualifiers (CONCACAF), as well as trips to Serbia, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Spain since 2015.
Nathan has had the privilege of traveling around the world with some of the best young soccer players in the U.S. to provide daily medical care. This trip in particular, however, felt special for Nathan. Not only because the U-20 World Cup is such a prestigious tournament, but also because it provided him the opportunity to see first-hand the development of players he’s known since the beginning of their careers. Since playing high school and academy ball as teenagers to now, Nathan has watched these players transform into bona fide professionals and potential senior national team players.
Taking full advantage of his network, Nathan’s journey with ATI in his physical therapy and athletic training career has been nothing short of exciting. To find out what led Nathan to Poland, we met up with him to learn more about the trip and what this opportunity means to him.
What led you to this opportunity with U.S. Soccer?
I’m both an athletic trainer and physical therapist, and Greg Banks, one of the current U.S. Women’s National Team athletic trainers, was my clinical instructor during my time at the College of Charleston in the athletic training program. Greg is currently a mentor and an incredibly important friend of mine. He connected me to U.S. Soccer and paved the way for me to begin covering the national teams in the PT/ATC role.
Can you talk a little about the importance of physical therapy/athletic training in soccer?
There are many, many catastrophic injuries in soccer with a myriad of reasons as to why. In the PT world, we unfortunately see plenty of knee, ankle and hip injuries in soccer players. My clinic in particular treats them every week. Having an athletic trainer on the sidelines who can immediately detect the signs and symptoms of a serious injury is vital to preserving the future career and livelihood of these players. On top of that, soccer produces very high, diverse physical loads on players so properly treating them behind the scenes ensures that they can continue to participate and prevents them from developing overuse injuries.
What were your responsibilities on the medical staff?
On this trip, I had a hybrid role of being an assistant behind the scenes, with another PT taking the lead role with regard to administration and communication with coaches and teams, and also being the lead evaluator for on field injuries. I treated the players multiple times each day, while communicating with the fitness coach and head coach regarding the availability and health status of each player. We essentially worked with the two goals of being able to keep the players safe/available for selection and also being able to perform their best. This also included some communication with the players’ professional teams before and after the tournament was over.
What were some of your key takeaways from this role?
My main takeaway is that we have wonderful young men representing our country on the field and many world class people behind the scenes providing them an incredibly professional environment. I’m blown away at how far the sports science field has come. The data we are obtaining during training sessions and games and the conclusions we are able to draw from it brings another level of care we can provide these players through rest, activity modification, nutrition, hydration and recovery. It’s incredible to see that in action and even more incredible that there are still many areas that sports science will grow in the future.
What was one memorable experience that you took away from this trip?
It was really fun for me to get back to the hotel following our first group stage match and watch my phone notifications sky rocket with friends and family sending me screenshots of myself on TV. You never want to go out on the field for an injury, but knowing people were watching and caring back home meant a lot to me.
What does having this opportunity mean to you?
It’s a dream. I love this sport and I love my profession. The fact that I have an opportunity to combine the two is simultaneously amazing and humbling.
If you had any advice for other PTs/ATCs looking for opportunities like this, what would you tell them?
It’s who you know, not what you know, so make sure who you know really knows who you are.