Sports and Exercise Therapy with foundation year

Sports and exercise therapy is a discipline that applies clinical and scientific knowledge to the assessment, treatment, and rehabilitation of musculoskeletal injuries sustained in sport and physical activity. Sports therapists work with athletes and active individuals at every level, from community sport to professional competition, providing immediate care for injuries, developing rehabilitation programmes, and advising on conditioning and injury prevention. The role requires a combination of anatomical knowledge, clinical reasoning, and hands-on therapeutic skill.

At Coventry University, this four-year full-time programme includes a foundation year that develops the anatomical, physiological, and scientific foundations needed before entering the main degree. You will learn to assess and treat sports injuries by combining exercise physiology with rehabilitation science, and you will develop practical clinical skills through hands-on experience in the university's on-campus sports therapy clinic. This clinical exposure begins early and builds progressively throughout the programme, ensuring that you develop both competence and confidence in therapeutic practice.

The course includes a sandwich year, a year abroad, and work placement, providing a particularly rich range of professional experience and international exposure that develops your clinical skills across diverse settings and populations.

Graduates from sports and exercise therapy programmes work with professional sports clubs, national governing bodies, sports medicine clinics, gymnasiums, physiotherapy practices, rehabilitation centres, and in the armed forces. Many pursue professional registration through the Society of Sports Therapists or related bodies. Further study options include postgraduate programmes in sports rehabilitation, sports medicine, physiotherapy, and strength and conditioning for those who wish to develop specialist expertise.