sports

A footy trainer was trying to do her job. Now she's become the punchline of a gross joke.

Picture this: You’re a trainer at an AFL club. A player comes off-field complaining of upper thigh discomfort. It’s your job to work on him, so that’s what you do. End of story.

Except there’s a cameraman who has filmed you working on that player at such an angle that it looks like you could be touching him inappropriately.

You’re not. The cameraman knows that. The player knows that. And yet the footage is spotted by a fan who thinks it’s funny to upload it to YouTube dubbed by Barry White’s ‘Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love’.

(Image via Fox News.)

Suddenly you doing your job has turned into a viral video and the target of appalling sexual slurs.

That was the reality for one Gold Coast Suns employee, who found herself the subject of sexual comments when she performed a treatment on player Brandon Matera during the Suns match against Carlton on Saturday night.

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The footage was later uploaded to YouTube, and has since also been basis for a Daily Mail article titled 'Do I HAVE to go back on? Eye-popping moment female physio works on injured footballer on the sidelines during a match... and he goes on to play the best game of his career'.

Cue comments like, "I heard it's called a lookaway handball" and "That's not how my prostate exam went...".

Listen: Miki Agrawal calls herself a She-E-O.

Representatives from two allied health associations have slammed the "completely inappropriate" coverage.

Myotherapy Association Australia President Anna Yerondais said the trainer receiving attention for just doing her job is "ridiculous".

"Regardless of the qualification of this young lady, to create sexual innuendo around her performing her professional duties... is simply wrong," Ms Yerondais said.

"And I'm sure if it was a male practitioner it wouldn't have received the same kind of publicity."

Ms Yerondais said the coverage of the footage attempts to "undermine" the woman and her role in what is historically a male-dominated sport.

"The athlete himself is showing no signs of it being inappropriate. He's being professional, she's being professional. The media coverage, I think actually they're the people at hand here who need to perhaps question their professionalism."

In her experience, Ms Yerondais said she has not come across people making inappropriate comments towards female professionals working on them.

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The cameraman continued to shoot at the poor angle. (Image via Fox News.)

Meanwhile the Australian Physiotherapy Association’s Chair of Sports Physiotherapy, Holly Brasher, said it was unfair the woman was "unnecessarily targeted" while just doing her job.

"Any person in this position working with professional athletes is under enough pressure to make on the spot decisions and return players to the field as soon as possible," Ms Brasher said.

"It is unfair that this female health professional may now also be concerned about the public perception of what she is doing when she is clearly doing a great job as stated."

Mamamia reached out to the trainer through the Gold Coast Suns Football Club. Neither the trainer or club wish to make a comment at this time.