As India opens up to fitness and sports, more and more parents ensure their kids playing football, basketball, tennis and badminton among other sports. Good sports training can help prevent sports injuries. In this post ReLiva physiotherapist team puts together 7 common football injuries and their treatment, hoping that this football injuries list will aid football injuries prevention.
Some of the most common football injuries include overuse injuries like football knee injury, ACL tear injury, arm injuries in football apart from ankle break, back pain, ankle sprain and muscles strain. In most cases a physiotherapist will help you with the treatment of these football injuries. “I had been suffering from elbow pain and lower back pain. I took my treatment from Dr Kashmira, physiotherapist at ReLiva Physiotherapy. She explains the problem well and tells what’s going wrong. In my case, pain reduced within five sessions. I am still continuing the exercises which she advised. It’s been hardly 15 days of my treatment but I am already starting to feel great and my performance in my sports is also gradually improving,” says athlete Mayank Bangale.
Increasingly kids play football match with a football league aspiring to be a score hero or idealizing the best football player in the world. It is important that they understand that there is a fine line between pushing yourself for the game and going overboard to cause sports injuries.
What are the most common football injuries?
Here are 7 most common football injuries.
- ACL Tear; ACL or the Anterior Cruciate Ligament is one of the most common locations for football trauma [Related Reading: ACL Tear and Recovery]
- Ankle Sprain or Ankle Break, muscle spasms and hamstring strain
- Knee Injury including dislocation, patellar tendinitis, MCL, and meniscus tears
- Concussion that may start with dizziness, numbing etc
- Shoulder Dislocations or ACJ Injury (Acromioclavicular Joint Injury)
- Back Injuries such as pulled muscles or disc herniations
- Heat injuries including painful cramping, vomiting, nausea etc
What are the causes of football injuries?
Football is a team sport and requires coordinated tactical attacks and defense depending upon opponent team and players. It involves various movements and techniques such as kicking, passing, running etc. It is a game of physical challenges and constant high speeds and full contact. Football is a sport that has repetitive alterations in the situations, player’s positions and in game positioning of the players during the game. Due to the mechanism of working together with offense and defense, combined movements and being a contact sport, football is considered to have most of the field injuries.
Which football position is most prone to football injuries?
The force applied to either bringing the opponent to the ground or to resisting being brought to the ground makes the football players prone to injury anywhere on their bodies, regardless of protective equipment. Each of the players in the game whether a goal keeper, center half backs, wing half backs, full backs, forwards or center forwards etc may have field injuries and should be aware of the defensive principles of the opponent players and team.
Most Common Types of Sports Injuries in football
Sports injuries can be divided into 4 types namely-
1) Overuse Injuries in Football
Overuse injuries are mainly seen in players due to overtraining or repetitive past injuries. Training the player beyond his ability to recover usually causes overuse injuries. Most common overuse injuries include:
- back injuries
- sprains
- patellar tendinitis
- muscle spasms
- hamstring strain etc.
Overuse injuries, if left untreated will aggravate pain and eventually transform into acute injuries causing bigger break for the athlete.
These can often be treated or prevented by appropriate Rest, Exercise and RICE protocol. Following the above preventive measures can help avoid overuse injuries to a greater extent.
2) Traumatic Injuries in Football
Traumatic injuries may be caused due to any instance of fall, defensive attack or on-field injury. The most common traumatic injuries include:
- knee injuries
- shoulder injuries
- acromioclavicular joint injuries
- ACL tear
- PCL tear etc.
Traumatic injuries if left untreated or delayed treatment can lead to secondary injuries. These injuries can thereby majorly affect player’s return to sport and recovery from the injury in the long term.
3) Heat Injuries in Football
Heat injuries are most common in football due to prolonged exposure to heat and long duration training program. Depletion of water and salt content in the body after prolonged exposure to heat may adversely affect the player and result in heat injuries among football players. Most common signs and symptoms of heat injuries include:
- sweating
- muscle cramps
- headache
- vomiting etc.
If left untreated, heat injuries can result in heat stroke or heat exhaustion. Therefore, adequate fluid intake and cooling down is the most important line of management in heat injuries.
4) Concussions during Football
Concussion is a pathophysiologic process affecting the brain by biomechanical forces. Football players are very susceptible to concussions. A concussion is a change in the mental state due to traumatic impact. Not all those who suffer concussion will lose consciousness. Some signs that indicate a concussion has been sustained include:
- headache
- dizziness and/or loss of consciousness
- nausea / vomiting
- loss of balance
- drowsiness
- numbness/tingling
- difficulty concentrating and
- blurry vision
Player suspected with concussion should be watched for the following problems such as blurred vision, difficulty in remembering recent events, slurring of speech, vomiting, worsening of headache, confusion, increased irritability.
The athlete should return to play only when clearance is granted by a health care professional.
How can football injuries be prevented?
American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine suggests the following tips to STOP Sports Injuries specially as pertinent to football injuries:
- Have a pre-season health and wellness evaluation.
- Perform proper warm up and cool down
- Consistently incorporate strength training and stretching.
- Hydrate adequately to maintain health and minimize cramps
- Stay active during summer break to prepare for return to sports
- Wear properly fitted protective equipment such as helmet, pad and mouthguard
- Tackle with the head up and do not lead with the helmet
- Speak with the sports medical professional for further prevention of the injuries.
How do you treat football injuries?
No matter what type of injury you get, a quick recovery is always a top priority. These four treatments for football injuries will help you get back on the field as fast as possible.
The 4 Best Treatments for Football Injuries
1. Rest & Recover
For at least a few days after the injury occurs, limit activity and get as much rest as you can while elevating the affected area. Immobilizing the area and limiting use of the injured body part will give your body the best opportunity to heal. On the other hand, trying to walk with a sprained ankle or throw a football with an injured shoulder will only prolong the recovery process and may lead to further injury.
2. Cold therapy
While you are resting and even after the injury has started to heal, use therapeutic cold to control inflammation and relieve pain with ice packs. In general, you can apply cold pack multiple times a day for 20-minute periods.
3. Compression Therapy
Applying compression to football injuries will help prevent swelling because excess fluid is not allowed to build up in the injured area. You can wrap a compression bandage around the area to achieve the desired amount of pressure or use an elastic brace to maintain constant pressure.
4. Physiotherapy
Football injuries can result in stiffness and weakened ligaments, tendons, and muscles. Physical therapy will help you strengthen and stretch the affected tissues so you can regain range of motion as quickly as possible. Physiotherapist will also help prevent re-injury by strengthening supporting muscles, teaching proper form, and encouraging warm-up and cool-down exercises to protect muscles and avoid future injury.
[Caution: If it is a fracture or concussion, you will be immediately transferred in the care of a relevant sports injury specialist. In most other injuries a physiotherapist will continue with your care]
Mr Vishnu Vijayan came to ReLiva with a knee injury suffered while playing football. He shares his recovery experience with Dr. Koushik: “He carefully listened to my problem and did a detailed analysis before arriving at the cause and gave a detailed explanation of my pain. The therapy sessions after that were very helpful and he also added different exercises to be carried out by myself to further the rehabilitation.”
Call+91 99209 91584 and Contact us today if you would like to learn more about how ReLiva physiotherapist can help you recover quickly from football injuries.
What can football coach/ trainers do to prevent Football injuries?
Prevention of football injuries plays an important role in management for execution of lesser incidence of injury. Football coaches and trainers can work on reducing the incidence of injuries among football players by following few interventions in the regular training program and practice. They should understand the following:
- Appropriate warm up and cool down exercises concentrating on each joint is significantly important in reducing the risk of injuries in players.
- There should be proper evaluation of the equipment being used before the game and during practice to reduce equipment related injuries such as helmets, pads etc.
- Encourage players to keep up with drinking water and/or sports drink. Afterall, adequate hydration plays a significant role in injury prevention.
- Ensure there is proper health and fitness evaluation from a qualified health care professional periodically, to minimize the risk of injuries and treating the ongoing injuries if any.
- Make sure the training program for the players include the following for better performance of the players:
- A good stretching drill for flexors (front of hip), hip adductors (inside of leg), I-T band (outside of leg), quadriceps (front of thigh), hamstrings (back of thighs), gastrocnemius /soleus, back/trunk, shoulder girdle and neck.
- Appropriate strength training for hip flexors, hip adductors, hip abductors, quadriceps, hamstrings, gastrocnemius/soleus, back/trunk, shoulder girdle and neck.
- Activities that promote balance reactions and proprioception
- Establish a plyometric/agility program.
- Cooling breaks are being given in accordance with the temperature assessment and plan of the day of the match.
- Techniques involving taping, strapping should be incorporated for protection from injury and stabilizing the initial injury from further aggravating.
- Players as well as their parents are aware about injury, adverse effects of untreated injury and prevention of injury.
- Players and parents are aware of the importance of RICE protocol as the first protocol until they see a qualified healthcare professional
Call +91 9920991584 and Contact us today if you would like to learn more about how ReLiva physiotherapist can help you recover quickly from football injuries.
This post is based on the contribution from Dr Tanaya Sarnaik (PT). She is an experienced Physiotherapist with Masters in Musculo-skeletal Injuries. Dr Tanaya is well versed with a variety of advanced physiotherapy techniques and uses them skillfully for recoveries of her patients.
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