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VRT News: Watch the VRT TV broadcast about the first open training session that KRC Genk organized for their new amputee soccer team. This article also features Lisbet Aerts, coordinator at Spronken Orthopedics, who, together with Tom Daniels, technical manager at Spronken, assists the AMP soccer players with equipment advice and on-field care.
KRC Genk is taking a special step: as the second professional club in Belgium, the top Limburg club has entered the world of amputee soccer. Amputee Care Center by Spronken was chosen as the preferred partner and is involved as an official partner from the very beginning.
Are you an amputee yourself and curious about the possibilities? Would you like to join the KRC GENK Amp soccer team, or are you interested in a custom sports prosthesis? Discover new possibilities. We’d love to invite you for an introductory meeting.
Contact us by completing the Contact Form or by calling +32 (0)470 500 888. We are at your service.
The KRC Genk Foundation announced the creation of the amputee soccer team back in November of last year. Since then, five soccer players with amputations, four field players and one goalkeeper, have already joined, but the club is still looking for more players to assemble a full-fledged team by the summer of 2026 that can compete in the Belgian league.
“We’re still looking for a number of people with amputations who would like to play soccer and join the big KRC Genk family,” says Eric Gerits, CEO of the KRC Genk Foundation. But it’s about more than just sports. “We want to bring people together and help them break out of their isolation. Winning the league isn’t that important, but participating in society is.”
Amputation soccer is an adapted form of soccer played by teams of seven players. Field players are missing a leg or part of a leg and play on crutches. Goalkeepers are missing an arm or part of an arm. This ensures that everyone plays under equal conditions, making the sport unique and accessible.
Amputation soccer is much more than just a sport: it is a testament to unparalleled willpower and resilience.
Hearing the verdict that you must undergo an amputation is a heavy burden to bear. There is support in the hospital and at the physical therapist’s office, but what happens next? When you go home, you often have to carry that burden on your own.
That is the reality that Lisbet Aerts, physical therapist and coordinator at Spronken Orthopedics, sees every day. This is where the Amputee Care Center makes a difference: “With the KRC Genk Foundation, we can now guide interested soccer players to this team,” Aerts of Spronken Orthopedics tells VRT News. “A concrete bridge between orthopedic care and an active, social life.”
For the KRC Genk AMP Team, our team developed personalized soccer crutches, fully tailored to the needs and wishes of each player. With extra spring for greater speed and explosiveness, a special wrist strap that keeps the crutch attached to the arm in case of a fall, and a unique color and jersey number for each player. Because even on the sports field, every amputee deserves an assistive device that fits them perfectly.
Amputation soccer is a sport for true go-getters with ironclad character. Every player has to deal with the loss of a limb, long-term rehabilitation, and often intense phantom pain. Despite the daily challenge of learning to move with a prosthesis, a player still consciously chooses to compete at the highest level. And even on crutches, without a prosthesis! It requires enormous mental strength, as well as upper-body strength in the arms and wrists. It demands discipline to train and perseverance to get back up time and again after a fall, to grit your teeth through the pain, and to keep fighting as a team.
Mario Claesen, the team captain, lost his leg in a motocross accident and was looking for a new athletic challenge. His message to other amputees is clear: “Not everyone would dare to come here, but I’d still like to advise them not to hesitate and to join the amputee team.”
At the Amputee Care Center, we take a holistic view of your experience as an amputee: how do you live and move in your daily life, and which solution best suits your needs?
That’s why our prosthetists, technicians, physical therapists, and psychologists work together under one roof. This allows us to offer comprehensive, customized care for every amputee. Systematic follow-up and timely adjustments are essential to this process. A prosthesis that becomes less comfortable over time doesn’t help anyone move forward. For us, long-term support isn’t a bonus, it’s the core of our approach.
“People push their limits here, both on and off the field. As a specialized orthopedic center, we’re here to support them,” says Lisbet Aerts.
The supporting orthopedic technical team plays a crucial role in high-level team sports. We ensure that every player receives a perfectly fitting prosthesis, sports prosthesis, or crutches tailored to the intense demands of their sport. During training sessions and matches, we are on hand to quickly adjust prostheses and other orthopedic devices, relieve pressure points, and perform minor repairs, so that players experience as little disruption as possible. In addition, we provide advice on the correct socket, foot selection, alignment, and shock absorption to prevent injuries and optimize athletic performance.
Amputee Care Center is a specialized unit of Spronken Orthopedie, a family-owned business that has been active in technical orthopedics for over 60 years, primarily in Belgium and the Netherlands. Under the leadership of Caius Spronken, our company has grown to become a true pioneer in the Benelux and far beyond. Innovation plays a central role in this: our team continues to invest in new techniques and better solutions for people with amputations.
KRC Genk is still looking for players for their amputee team. Are you from Limburg, do you have an amputation, and do you want to play soccer? Don’t hesitate to get in touch via the KRC Genk Foundation. Would you like to learn more about the options available to amputees, or are you not entirely satisfied with your current prosthesis? You’re welcome to visit the Amputee Care Center by Spronken for a free, no-obligation consultation.
Spronken is a NEN-EN-ISO 13485-certified supplier of orthopaedic equipment. Over the past 60 years, Spronken has grown into one of the largest companies in the fields of orthoses, prostheses, mobility and state-of-the-art rehabilitation equipment in Europe.
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