everything you say is accurate about the football team traveling with an orthopedic doctor and x-rays can be done, usually at the stadium. BOTH of those situations have more to do with the risk of injury and the likelihood of severity of the injury from the specific sport. Yes it does cost more but, like most business decisions it is a risk/reward/probability of occurrence evaluation. To repeat, my point was that there are not differences but, that no athlete is denied treatment on the road purely as a finance decision. ALL competitions have on site medical staff be they doctors or trainers capable of triaging an injury situation.

Now to the specific situation being complained about. If the hand injury was a possible fracture delaying the x-ray and evaluation presented no immediate risk as long as injury area was immobilized and protected. In fact, if it were a hairline fracture, it might not even be discernible until 24 or 48 hours later. With the injury occurring when it did nothing significant would have been gained and, more importantly, nothing significant would have been lost, by delaying full evaluation until return to Blacksburg. Had this been an extended road trip I believe other arrangements would have been made for evaluation. Final question, at VT and other schools how many teams aside from football, do you believe travel with an orthopedic doctor?
[Post edited by 2hhoop3 at 03/17/2021 10:23AM]