About
Inside Football Medicine
An independent consulting and audit firm dedicated to the medical and medical-performance organisation of elite football.
Medical performance is decided by what flows between the medical staff and the rest of the club — not by what is diagnosed in isolation.
Our philosophy
Stars don't make a team.
A club can bring together excellent professionals — doctors, physios, fitness coaches, coaches — and still lose players, time and points. Most of the time, individual competence is not the problem.
The problem sits at the interfaces: information that arrives too late, a decision nobody owns, a return to play that is negotiated rather than prepared. That is where we look.
As on the pitch, performance comes from collective organisation: each staff holds a position, and the quality of the links between them makes the difference.
Our approach
A field-based, external and independent view.
- Observe realityWe compare what is declared with what actually happens: day to day, in training and on match day.
- Look at the systemWe analyse the links between management, coaching staff, performance and medical, rather than each department in isolation.
- Make it actionableEvery engagement ends with clear priorities and a roadmap the club can implement.
The founder
Manuel Afonso, MD
Sports medicine · Sports traumatology
A sports physician for more than twenty years, Manuel Afonso has led medical departments in professional clubs and national teams, from Ligue 2 to the World Cup.
He has seen football from the inside: the pressure of results, decisions that must be made fast, cultures and organisations that differ from one country to the next. IFM grew out of an observation he made everywhere: a club's medical difficulties are first and foremost organisational ones.
Background
- 2004 – 2014CS Sedan ArdennesMedical director
- 2019 – 2024Senegal national teamNational team doctor
- 2025 – 2026Olympique LyonnaisHead of medical services, first team
- Since 2026Angola national teamNational team doctor
Our commitments
What clubs can rely on.
- IndependenceIFM has no clinical facility to fill and no stake in the recommendations it makes.
- ConfidentialityDocuments shared remain the club's responsibility and are not kept beyond the engagement. Medical confidentiality is respected at all times.
- ComplementarityIFM does not replace the club doctor: we support them, we do not take their place.
- Medical ethicsEvery engagement is led by a physician, in line with the code of medical ethics.