Sports doctors under pressure from pushy managers and the media could be cutting corners and risking the health of athletes, researchers said Thursday.

Scientists from the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, found that some sports doctors feel compelled to get injured athletes back on their feet before they have fully recovered.

“As medical and scientific intervention in sport escalates, there is a risk that demands for enhanced performance may compromise the health of the athlete,” Lynley Anderson said in a report in the Journal of Medical Ethics.

She and her colleague questioned 18 sports doctors in New Zealand who worked for national, regional and school teams about the medical and ethical problems they faced.

Half complained about having to return players to the field too quickly after an injury, which could be bad for their long-term health.

Others were concerned about the use of painkillers and other techniques to keep players performing and the lack of time to assess a medical problem during a game.

But the most common problem was privacy and confidentiality. Managers, coaches and the media frequently demanded information about a player’s health.

“Coaches and management staff are not part of the medical tradition, which holds private health information sacred,” said Anderson.

Players, worried that they would be dropped from the team, did not always reveal the full extent of their injury, which made treating them effectively difficult.

Further ethical tensions arose when doctors came across sensitive information, such as the use of performance-enhancing drugs, infectious illnesses or pregnancy.

Despite the pressures, doctors stressed patients always came first, with responsibilities to the coach and management a distant second.

“Players first, all others follow,” said one doctor. “If I do this, then I am probably fulfilling my obligation.”

SOURCE: Journal of Medical Ethics, February 2005.