Football (soccer) is a very popular team sport among African women and girls, with player numbers continuing to rise at all levels of the sport. Whereas the participation in football and associated injuries are on the rise, there are not enough sports and exercise medicine (SEM) personnel to attend to these women football players. While Africa may not currently have enough SEM trained medical doctors and/or physiotherapists, it has relatively higher numbers of other healthcare workers; for example, nurses, who lead healthcare services provision from community to tertiary levels. The objectives of this study will be to develop a task sharing approach to actively recruit and train nurses as pitch side responders in grassroots women’s football in Malawi’s Women’s Football League. This study will be a parallel randomised control trial will recruit 24 teams from the Women’s Football League in Malawi, which will be randomised to either the intervention group or the control group. A cohort of 12 nurses will receive training in basic football medicine; after which they will be attached to a total of 12 women’s football teams (intervention group) during one competitive season. The Football Nurses will be directly report to a physiotherapist or doctor in their district to whom they will refer serious injuries for investigations, or further management. The teams with Football Nurses will be compared to other teams that will not have Football Nurses. We expect to develop a low cost, sustainable and context relevant solution to manage the treatment gap of football injuries/illnesses in underserved communities such as women’s football. Trial registration number Pan African Clinical Trial Registry (PACTR202205481965514).

We have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: AM is Director of the Medical Department at FIFA NSM is a technical consultant for FIFA?s Women?s Football Department.

PACTR202205481965514

The FIFA Football Nurse project is funded by the Women’s Football Development Department at Federation Internationale Football Association (FIFA). The funders were not involved in the design or write up of the protocol.

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

Yes

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

This protocol was approved by College of Medicine Research Ethics Committee, Kamuzu University of Health Science (COMREC) with registration number: P.01/22/3551.

I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals.

Yes

I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

Yes

I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable.

Yes

Deidentified research data will be made publicly available upon request when the study is completed and published.