Consent in medicine and sport.

Last year's football World Cup serves to highlight the confusion now surrounding the classical aim of both sport and sports medicine, namely a healthy mind in a healthy body. The recent focus on violent injuries and the exponential increase in medical litigation suggests that this relationship is not so clearly defined. One cornerstone of this traditional relationship is the concept of informed consent. We review the legal position of consent in sport, especially soccer, which still awaits clarification and draw clear parallels with surgical consent.