How To Kick Away Typical Football Injuries

According to the Football Association, one in five adults play football in some shape or form across the UK. In sport, injury comes with the territory and football is no different. 

Common injuries

The majority of football related injuries are trauma-based injuries affecting soft tissues. Owing to the nature of the sport a large proportion of the injuries affect the lower extremities. Common injuries are often to the hamstrings, knees and ankles.

How to avoid or recover from sport injuries

There is no doubt that being active is beneficial to your health. However, there are always risks involved and so, it is paramount that you also look after your body. To minimise the risk of injury enables individuals to remain active for longer, improving health over a lifetime. There are a couple of injuries that footballers commonly sustain, but in the context of sport injuries, football is relatively safe compared to activates such as rugby.

Repetitive strain injury

The first are injuries obtained through repetitive straining. These often develop when individuals do not leave enough time to recover between training and fail to cool down or stretch properly. Injuries can include shin splints, pain in the back of the knee (patellar tendinitis) and pain at the back of the ankle (Achilles Tendinitis). In severe cases overuse can even lead to stress fractures.

Trauma based injuries

The second type of injury common among those who play football is trauma-based injury. These can arise from overextension or contact between players. These injuries can often be more serious and in some instances may even require surgery. Common trauma injuries include ankle sprains, hamstring stains, anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) strains and cartilage tears.

Instability problems

Often more serious injuries to lower extremities such as cartilage tears or ACL damage can lead to instability problems, which in turn can lead to alignment problems. This occurs as weight becomes unevenly distributed across the legs in order to overcompensate for the injury. This can amount to problems such as a misaligned pelvis and back pain.

For further information or advice, please talk to your chiropractor.