Sporting Injuries

Injury to an athlete may be considered to be either an acute or overuse injury.

Acute Injuries

In acute injuries, a force occurs suddenly to a normal tissue, and at the time of injury exceeds the strength of the structure which results in damage.

Force are normally muscle contractions leading to muscle or tendon tears, twisting injuries as in ankle sprains and knee ligament injuries and direct trauma or contusion from impact with an opponent or object.

First Aid and Treatment for Acute Injuries

First aid treatment involving RICE should be given as soon as possible, to minimise bleeding.  An early accurate diagnosis of the tissue injured is essential to direct the optimal treatment pathway.

Treatment may involve surgery or conservative management with a sports professional guiding the injured athlete through a well-designed graded rehabilitation programme.

Overuse Injuries

An overuse injury is from repetitive activity such as running or fast bowling in cricket.  Repetition leads to microtrauma which overloads the capacity of the tissue to repair itself.

The most common overuse injuries affect tendons as in tendinosis and bone as in stress fractures.

The cause of overuse injuries is most often multifactorial involving intrinsic and extrinsic factors such as training errors and poor biomechanics.

The greatest challenge is to identify and correct the causes.