Top 10 most common sports injuries
post by Dr Raman Kant Aggarwal on July 6th, 2019
If you are a sport player or an athlete, you are likely to experience injuries while you are playing the sport or during the training period. While there is a range of injuries or accidents that can happen, we will discuss the top ten most common injuries.
1. Shoulder Injury
Shoulder is an important joint of body that is responsible for several motions. But it is also subjected to a lot of pressure during sports and therefore, about 20% of sport injuries can be attributed to the shoulder. These include shoulder dislocation, sprain, and strains. Most of these shoulder injuries are caused by harm to the rotator cuff due to excess force. Shoulder injuries are observed in majority of sports such as football, tennis, baseball, swimming, basketball and weight lighting. While strains, ligament sprain are common shoulder injuries, sometimes severe damage can lead to dislocation or misalignment.
2. Tennis or Golf elbow
Tennis or golf elbow injuries are other common set of sport injuries. Any sport that requires the excess and repetitive use of wrist and elbow, can lead to tendon in elbow to degenerate or swell and cause tennis or golf elbow. An injury to the exterior part of elbow is termed as tennis elbow whereas the harm that leads to pain on inside of the elbow is called as golf elbow. These are most common in tennis and gold and hence, the terminologies.
3. Knee injury
Knee injuries are the most common type of sports injuries that often need surgical treatment. The knee injuries are categorized by strain or harm to tendons, muscles, and four ligaments: Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL), Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL), Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL), and the Lateral Collateral Ligament (LCL). The common knee Injuries are:
a) ACL Sprain/Tear
b) MCL Sprain/Tear
c) Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome: muscle weakness or softening of the cartilage under the kneecap.
d) Bursitis: inflammation of the bursa
e) Patellar Tendinitis: inflammation of the patellar tendon
4. Hamstring strain
You must have seen football players going down holding their thigh – this happens due to sudden or too much sprain to muscles behind the thigh. Hamstring pull or strain typically needs sufficient rest for recovery. These are more common in basketball, American football, and soccer.
5. Groin Pull
Groin pulls are common in soccer, basketball, American football and hockey. A groin or the inner thigh muscle helps pulls the legs together. Sudden motions to inner thigh muscles or sprain can cause groin pull. It occurs in sports that observe quick jumps or side motions.
6. Ankle strain
Ankle sprains or strain are also common in sports such as football, basketball, baseball, tennis, soccer, hockey, and volleyball. Ankle sprains can occur during running, jumping, and physically competing with rival team players that can lead to rolling the ankle inward under the weight of the rest of the body. This damages the ligaments on outside of the ankle and can cause sprain to the ankle measured on the level 1 to 3 on basis of its severity.
7. Shin injury or split
Similar to the ankle strain, shin splints occur during running activity by athletes, most commonly observed in soccer. Shin splits include pain in the lower leg bone, or the tibia. Shin split are seen more in young players or athletes.
8. Sciatica
Tennis players, golfers or cyclists often complain of radiating pain from their back that travels down their leg up till their foot, commonly known as sciatica. This can be caused due to nerve damage or bulging disc in the back. Physio therapists can help affected sport players manage the numbing pain and alleviate the sciatica symptoms.
9. Concussion
Concussions are head or brain injuries that occur due to severe damage to the head. Affected athletes can experience loss of consciousness, disorientation, nausea, loss of balance, and amnesia. Sports such boxing, soccer, football, and hockey sometimes observe players getting concussions.
10. Achilles tear
The Achilles tear involves injury to the tendon between the calf muscle and heel bone. It usually occurs because of swelling to the tendon leading to tendonitis which can be rather painful. Achilles tendon can get ruptured by sudden movements during running or jumping.