ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses genetic tests for injury prevention in four cases: sudden cardiac-death-related conditions; concussion-related trauma brain injuries; over-exertion complications related to the sickle-cell anaemia trait; and Achilles tendinopathies and anterior crucial ligament injuries. The uncertainty of the safety of return-to-play decisions after a concussion has slowly come to be recognised and disclosed to the player-patient. There is a growing trend in sports medicine and sports science, which can be seen not only in the world of elite sports but also in general public policy, to utilise genetic technologies to predict and attempt to control the processes of our bodies. Sports develop their own micro-worlds, where play is somehow at one and the same time connected to and disconnected from the everyday world. Most cases of sudden cardiac arrest are related to different kinds of cardiac arrhythmias, with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a pathological enlargement of the heart, being the most common cause of sudden cardiac death in young athletes.
