Originally Posted by
Tazzmania
From the British Journal of sports medicine, and appears to be releavant to Australia, as one of the authors is a professor at Melbourne University.
".... Clubs, leagues, and associations must comply with any applicable privacy, health, and medical records legislation in relation to the storage of, access to and disclosure of medical or health records of individual players. The general principle found in such legislation is that players’ medical records held by their employing clubs or league or association must be treated as confidential. The relationship between the player (as patient) and medical staff is treated as legally privileged and protected. It follows that a player’s medical records cannot and must not be released to any other person without the specific consent of the player.
In contrast, mandatory reporting policies such as those in the NFL and AFL, place teams and players under a positive obligation to give the league, media, supporters and even opposing teams, notification of the injury or illness status of players. This process, which entails players expressly waiving their confidentiality privilege to their own medical data, is regulated by collective bargaining agreements between the players’ unions, clubs and the league.
Players have been reported to regularly use social media platforms during injury recovery periods[6], however many players will typically be apprehensive to reveal their medical status, particularly if it may affect their selection and/or contract negotiations. Media and medical staff may recommend that players do not post any details or images of injuries or illnesses sustained and restrict all social media interaction on injuries or medical procedures to acknowledgement of well-wishers only...."