Sports medicine has moved from the margins to the mainstream of African football, with CAF embedding player welfare into the heart of how it plans and delivers competitions across the continent. In an exclusive interview with CAFOnline, CAF Medical Manager Dr Boubakary Sidiki outlined the progress made, the work still ahead, and the particular challenges facing youth and women's football.

A shift from event-based care to long-term health

According to Dr Sidiki, the most significant change in recent years has been a structural one — moving away from treating medical provision as an event-only concern toward a comprehensive model of player health and safety. CAF has standardised medical protocols across its competitions, strengthened pre-competition medical assessments, improved concussion management procedures, and invested in cardiac arrest preparedness and anti-doping education.

CAF has also deepened its collaboration with FIFA, the WHO, and other confederations to ensure African football keeps pace with global medical standards. "We will continue to work to keep up with the development of football on our continent and to ensure that the needs of players are met," Dr Sidiki said.

The particular demands of youth football

Young players present a distinct medical challenge. Still developing physically, psychologically, and neurologically, their bodies respond to training loads and injury differently from adult players. Dr Sidiki identified growth-related injuries, nutritional needs, mental wellbeing, and safe return-to-play protocols as priority concerns for CAF's U-17 and U-20 competitions.

"The objective is not only to keep players available for competition today, but also to protect their long-term health and future careers," he said. He also stressed the importance of Member Associations following CAF regulations and guidelines at youth level, so that investments made now deliver benefits over time.

On the question of specific risks, Dr Sidiki identified four priority areas for youth football: cardiac screening to detect underlying heart conditions, concussion management in line with internationally recognised protocols, heat illness prevention given the climatic conditions of many African venues, and monitoring of overtraining and excessive workload among adolescent athletes.

Women's football and the need for a tailored approach

African women's football has grown considerably, but Dr Sidiki argued that female athletes require a distinct medical approach. Considerations specific to women include menstrual health, iron deficiency, bone health, pregnancy-related factors, and a statistically higher risk of injuries such as ACL ruptures.

Despite the progress made, he said continued investment is needed in specialist medical services, sports science support, injury surveillance, and research focused specifically on African female athletes. CAF has begun incorporating women's football medicine into its educational and strategic priorities, but Dr Sidiki acknowledged that more remains to be done.

Building medical culture from the ground up

Dr Sidiki was emphatic that good medical practice cannot wait until players reach senior level. Habits formed in adolescence — around nutrition, injury prevention, recovery, anti-doping, and mental health — tend to persist throughout a career. Youth football, he argued, is the ideal environment to build that culture.

CAF has continued to invest in training practitioners and standardising practices across Member Associations, but Dr Sidiki acknowledged that progress is uneven. Disparities in medical infrastructure, limited access to sports medicine specialists in certain regions, and variable availability of diagnostic equipment remain real obstacles. Ensuring that modern medical knowledge reaches grassroots and youth football — not only elite competitions — remains a central goal.

Data and technology as the next frontier

Looking ahead, Dr Sidiki pointed to data-driven injury prevention as an increasingly important priority. CAF is working to strengthen its medical data systems to better understand injury patterns, inform protocol development, and protect players at all levels of the game across Africa.