Seán Moran on medical concerns over the huge demands of college,club and county on players

With a neat sense of timing an ad hoc collective of medical professionals will meet in Galway today to consider the challenges arising from their involvement with football and hurling teams. They'll have plenty to discuss as this weekend sees the GAA stage a controversially loaded fixture list.

For the first time anyone can remember, the Sigerson Cup, the Holy Grail of higher education football, is being decided on the same weekend as a National Football League and National Hurling League programme. The strain on players is becoming intolerable.

By common agreement, the proportion of inter-county players involved in third level education is between 80 and 90 per cent. For them, the months after Christmas are an endurance test.

Take UCD's Limerick dual player Stephen Lucey. Between Sigerson and dual commitments to the county he will have played on four successive days by Sunday evening.

Since the inter-county season adjusted to the calendar year, pressures have grown. There are too few weekends to accommodate comfortably the Sigerson and its hurling equivalent, the Fitzgibbon Cup. County managers are becoming less patient with players who want to commit to their colleges and demand their presence at county training regardless of the exhaustion and psychological pressure involved.

Dr Pat O'Neill will be in Galway today. He won three Sigerson medals with UCD and managed Dublin for three years. But it is in his capacity as a sports injuries specialist that the current situation most alarms him.

"Undoubtedly we're seeing more of the overuse type of injury in the musculo-skeletal system, like groin strains and damage to tendons such as Achilles and knee, and back problems as well. You can see the dangers in a situation like this. It's a contact sport so you pick up injuries and there's not enough recovery time.

"Younger players are also more at risk. This is backed up by a comprehensive study conducted by the FA in England showing injuries occurring more in the younger age group."

The study (The Football Association Medical Research Programme: an audit of injuries in professional football-analysis of pre-season injuries) was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine last December and surveyed 91 professional clubs over two competitive seasons. It found that the 17-25 age group was more susceptible to injury.

"The physical and physiological implications of over-training are obvious," according to O'Neill, "but there's also the psychological pressure because students also have lectures to attend and exams to sit. Not too many will be playing inter-county over the age of 30. Burn-out is shortening careers."

John Maughan won Sigerson with UCG and manages Mayo. "It's dreadful to ask young, underage players to play for four days running and undergo that wear-and-tear," he says.

"In some cases guys are playing Sigerson, inter-county and club at a stage in their natural development that can't sustain that pressure - physically or psychologically."

Páraic Duffy is the outgoing chair of the GAA's Games Administration Committee, which has responsibility for the national fixtures calendar. "We offered dates for the third level and it was the CAO (the GAA's Higher Education council) choice to take this weekend.

"This (pressure on players) is one of the big issues facing us. It's one of the key arguments why the Fixtures Work Group didn't want the Sigerson clashing with the under-21 All-Ireland and moved the under-21 to the autumn. But once you go to a calendar year basis you accept that certain clashes can't be avoided."

CAO member Eugene McKenna of Waterford IT says they took this weekend because it was the only date that fitted into all constraints. "We were boxed into a short period. The new structure is making Higher Education games nearly impossible to play. Our season begins in mid-October and the county season is played on a calendar year - that's why we had to move the final away from Sunday. The whole thing needs to be looked at."

According to McKenna the most important aspect of the problem is generally overlooked. "The key thing is that these guys have their studies to pursue and it's getting near a situation where it won't be possible to play for your college and your county and give your studies and livelihood the proper attention."

Dave Billings, the UCD coach and Dublin selector, said in an interview with this paper during the week he felt the best way forward would be to conduct the Sigerson and Fitzgibbon as midweek competitions and drop the tournament weekend conclusion.

Pat O'Neill agrees. "The weekend thing isn't working out. It should be played midweek. There's no need for a weekend because it's not a big spectator event - or at least go back to the four-team weekend (as opposed to the current eight).

Yet within the third level GAA community there is a great attachment to the idea of travelling to the one venue for the final stages of the competitions.

Maughan believes in the value of third level competition and its traditions. "Player have been preparing for a long time for this. Going away for the weekend adds to the camaraderie. Sigerson gives players the opportunity to develop as footballers and develop solid friendships. I'd hate to see anything happening it."

But tonight Cork may witness to the incongruous sight of tired but triumphant Sigerson players having to "mind themselves" for county matches tomorrow.