Eye Tests, Insurance and Duty of Care: What Every Glasgow Club Committee Should Check
2 September 2026
05:49
We give this talk to clubs in about twenty-five minutes, usually at a training night, and the part that surprises people is not the prevention section. It is how much damage gets done in the sixty seconds after an injury by people trying to help.
So we have written it down. If your club never invites us, we would still rather every coach in Glasgow knew what is below.
Not, generally, the way people imagine. The mental image is a dramatic collision. The reality is more ordinary.
This is the section we would most like every coach to remember. Four things not to do, and they are all instincts.
What to do instead is short. Stop play. Sit them down. Ask them to keep both eyes still, because the uninjured eye moving drags the injured one with it. Cover the eye with a rigid shield if you have one, or a cup or similar taped over the socket resting on the bone, applying no pressure. Then decide urgency.
What you are seeing | Urgency | What to do |
|---|---|---|
Suspected penetrating injury or embedded object | Emergency, now | Shield without pressure, do not remove, A&E immediately |
Chemical in the eye (lime, cleaning agent) | Emergency, now | Irrigate copiously at once, then A&E |
Loss or blurring of vision after a blow | Same day, urgent | Stop play, arrange emergency eye assessment |
Blood visible in the coloured part of the eye | Same day, urgent | Do not delay; this needs examining |
Severe pain or marked light sensitivity | Same day, urgent | Emergency eye assessment |
New flashes or floaters after impact | Same day, urgent | Even if vision seems normal |
Double vision or eye not moving normally | Same day, urgent | Possible orbital injury; A&E |
Watering, mild ache, no vision change | Assess and monitor | Rest, no rubbing; review if anything changes |
The bias should be towards assessment. An eye examined unnecessarily costs an hour. An eye not examined when it should have been can cost permanent vision.
Three presentations get sent back onto the pitch more often than they should.
A player takes a blow, says they are fine, then mentions seeing “sparks” or new specks drifting across their vision. Because they can still see the ball, everyone relaxes. These symptoms can indicate a retinal problem developing, and the window in which it is straightforward to treat is not long. Same-day assessment, even if they feel well.
Bleeding into the front chamber of the eye can look minor, sometimes only a thin line visible when the player is upright. It needs examining the same day because of the risk of pressure rise and further bleeding, and because it changes what the player should do for the following days.
After a blow to the socket, an eye that does not track fully, or double vision on looking in one direction, can indicate an orbital fracture with tissue trapped. The external appearance is often unremarkable. This needs hospital assessment.
This matters more than people expect, because sending a player to the wrong place wastes hours.
For clubs in the Southside, we provide emergency eye care from the practice at Bellahouston. Telephone 0141 427 4040 and say it is urgent.
Almost everything above is avoidable, and the prevention list is unglamorous.
The talk usually ends here, because it is the part players engage with most and it is the honest end of the same subject.
Sport asks the visual system for considerably more than reading a letter chart: tracking a moving object, judging closing speed, peripheral awareness, sustained focus under fatigue. Correcting a genuine deficit in any of those produces a real improvement. Claims about training an already healthy visual system are more mixed, and we say so rather than overselling. We have set out where the evidence is strong and where it is not in our article on sports vision.
Twenty to thirty minutes, at a session you already run, no charge. It forms part of the club partnership we offer to rugby, football and cycling clubs across Glasgow, and we are glad to deliver it to a club that takes nothing else from us.
Book your comprehensive eye examination or eyewear styling consultation with
Mosspark Opticians today.
Stop play and sit them down. Do not let them rub the eye, do not apply pressure to it, do not attempt to remove anything embedded, and do not use drops or rinse an impact injury. Cover the eye with a rigid shield resting on the bone around the socket without pressing on the eye, then assess urgency. If in any doubt, arrange same-day assessment.
Treat as an immediate emergency any suspected penetrating injury or embedded object, any chemical in the eye, sudden loss or blurring of vision, severe pain, an irregular pupil, blood visible in the coloured part of the eye, double vision, or an eye that does not move normally. New flashes or floaters after a blow also need same-day assessment even if vision seems normal.
Ice for surrounding swelling is reasonable, but it must rest on the bone around the eye rather than on the eye itself, and with no pressure. If there is any possibility the eye wall has been breached, pressure can cause serious further damage. When unsure, apply nothing and get the eye assessed.
Rubbing is the universal first reaction and it turns a small foreign body sitting on the surface into a corneal abrasion. It can also worsen bleeding inside the eye after blunt trauma. Say it out loud to the player early, because people rub without realising they are doing it.
They can indicate a problem developing at the retina, and they need same-day assessment even if the player says their vision is fine and wants to continue. This is one of the most commonly missed presentations in club sport, precisely because the player often feels well.
Suspected penetrating injury, chemical exposure, sudden vision loss or a suspected orbital fracture should go straight to A&E. For most other acute eye problems, an optometrist with emergency capability is often faster and better equipped for eyes specifically. Our optometrists hold Independent Prescribing, so we can assess, diagnose and prescribe in practice where appropriate.
A rigid eye shield is the single most useful addition and almost no club has one. Sterile saline for irrigating chemical exposure, and a clear written note of where to send a player for emergency eye assessment, are also worth having. Deliberately absent: eye drops, which should not be used on an impact injury.
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