Cortoon GAA and LGFA Player Injury Information.
The following information relates to player injury claim procures for injuries occurring at officially sanctioned fixtures or supervised training sessions for GAA, LGFA and players who are paid up members of Cortoon GAA and LFGA and registered with their relevant County Boards.

Injury Benefit Fund

What is the GAA Injury Benefit Fund?
The GAA Injury Benefit Fund provides cover to GAA registered members playing Hurling, Gaelic Football, Handball and Rounders' for financial benefits should they sustain an accidental bodily injury during an official match or a sanctioned challenge match or an official supervised training session. This means that if a player incurs medical expenses as a result of his GAA injury, the fund will financially support the player if they have no other covers or to cover shortfalls on private covers that the player may have.  The fund should not be relied upon to pay for all medical fees.  Cover is subject to the terms of the Fund.

Is it insurance?
No, it is not insurance. There is no insurer involved in the operating of the Fund and it is not regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. All monies within the fund come from the GAA through annual registration fees, gate receipts and Central Council contributions. In effect, it is a benefit fund, funded by members for the members. It is still governed by a set of rules, terms and conditions where exclusions and limitations apply. The fund is there to help alleviate the financial burden of medical costs on players resulting from their GAA injury should this happen.

For example, if you have private health insurance with the VHI, Irish Life, Laya or other provider, you must use this pathway first and put in a claim with your insurer before making a claim on the injury fund for any shortfall. The injury fund is there to supplement unrecoverable costs that cannot be recovered elsewhere.

The most important thing to be aware of is the “TIMELINE” for reporting injuries through the 2 different codes.

 
Any claims made after any of these specific timelines WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED by the relevant insurer or Injury Benefit Fund.

The GAA Benefit Fund have an excess on their claims so the first €100 is not covered and is payable by the injured player.

If the player has private health insurance, all receipts must be submitted to their own insurer first and Benefit statements furnished before any injury expenses are paid out by any of the Injury Funds.

The GAA Injury Schemes do not pay for physiotherapy unless it is post-surgery and specifically certified by the consultant.

GAA Injury Claim Procedures (Updated)
The GAA Injury Benefit Fund has made changes in relation to the reporting of injuries for all male players with effect from 1st June 2025. Up to now, all claims were on an online portal and had to be set up by the Injury Fund Administrator. From 1st June 2025, the onus will be on the injured player (or parent in the case of younger players) to report the injury through the Foireann System. The club will not have any access to report injuries to the GAA Injury Benefit Scheme.

Players injured in games under the control of the GAA must now report their injuries by logging on to Foireann system (Foireann.ie).

As and from 1st June 2025, the process for reporting all injuries to the GAA Injury Benefit Scheme has been changed by Croke Park and affects all clubs.

Reporting is via the Foireann system (Foireann.ie).

Cortoon GAA and LGFA will not have any access to reporting new injuries.

How do I make an Injury Claims Notification on Foireann?
• Log in to your Foireann account on www.foireann.ie
• Click on ‘Profile’ in the menu
• Click on ‘Player Actions’ Tab
• Under ‘Injury Notification’ click on the blue ‘CREATE AN INJURY NOTIFICATION’ link and follow the steps.

All your details should be displayed there. Please check that you are happy that they are correct and then either update them if needed or confirm that they are correct.

Moving on to the next stage, you will be asked to select the team you are involved with and the date of the injury. Please note that the injury must be reported within 60 days – day 1 being the date the injury occurred. Anything outside that date will not be accepted. 

Once updated you will be brought to the next page, and at a minimum you will be asked to supply details of the injury and whether it occurred at a match or a training session/medical or dental claim/if you have private health insurance and the plan name.

Once all the details have been filled in correctly and validated, you will be allowed to review and submit the document.

After that it will be passed on electronically to the Club Secretary to confirm that the details are correct to the best of their knowledge.

Once the injury is notified on Foireann, the club will need to validate it.  Once validated by the club, the claim will go to Allianz (the GAA claim handlers) for processing and the player \ parent \ guardian will receive notification of this. Allianz will then contact the player \ parent \ guardian via email regarding the documents required to resolve the claim. It is the responsibility of the injured player (or parent of juvenile) to notify and manage their claim accordingly via Foireann.  

Even if you're not sure whether you'll need to make a financial claim from the Fund, it's worth getting the injury registered on Foireann within the 60 days as a precautionary measure. If a claim does not need to be progressed, the claims handler can simply close the file out.

If you have any questions in relation to any of the process above, you can contact Cortoon GAA and LGFA and we will do our best to help you.

For Foireann support on making a claim, click on this  link: Claim Support

Downloads - Guides & Forms:
2025 GAA Injury Benefit Fund Summary Document.pdf

GAA Injury Benifit Fund      

LGFA Player Injury Scheme
The GAA Injury Benefit Fund does not cover ladies football players or Camogie players. The LGFA has its own player injury scheme.

Important: LGFA injuries, both adult and juvenile, must be reported within 56 days of the injury occurring.

LGFA injury Claim Procedures
The Preliminary Claim Form must be completed when the following applies:

Scanned copies of the Preliminary Form can be emailed to Cortoon LGFA or given to a committee member and will be forwarded to Galway LGFA.

The Full Injury Claim Form is to be used if the treatment is:

This form will need to be signed by the Cortoon LGFA. It also requires the signature of the team mentor.

Original signed form and hard copies of original receipts are required, and the completed form should be posted by the claimant to LGFA Galway County Boards Office, Pearse Stadium, Rockbarton Rd, Salthill, Galway, H91 PX30.

The Injury Claim form will also be used as a follow up to the Preliminary Injury Claim form to submit all original receipts, benefit statements as above and must be signed off by Cortoon LGFA before posting to LFGA Injury Fund, Croke Park, Dublin 3, D03 P6K7.

The following documents relate to Ladies Football Injuries and claim procedures:
LGFA Preliminary-Claim-Form-2.pdf
LGFA Full-Injury-Claim-Form.pdf
LGFA Injury-Fund-Guide_2025.pdf