Ok just checked this up in the net... because i've been having some aches and pains at certain areas sometime while playing football or after the match. I make a dive and next thing i know is that my knee hurts and i'm limping and i dunno what happened...
If you are a serious soccer player, what are your chances of sustaining a serious injury? What can you do to lower your injury risk?
To find answers to these key questions, researchers from the San Jose Earthquakes professional soccer team and the East Bay Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Associates in California recently followed 237 Major-League soccer players over the course of a full season. The players ranged in age from 18 to 38.
The researchers defined a minor injury as one that interrupted participation in practice or play for a period of less than one week, a moderate injury as one necessitating absence for more than one week but less than one month, and a major injury as a malady which caused an inability to participate lasting for more than one month.
No position (midfielder, goalkeeper, defender, or forward) was associated with a higher rate of injury, but games were significantly more risky than practices.
Knee injuries were the worst
As you might expect, the majority of injuries (77%) occurred in the leg, with 21% involving the knee and 18% striking the ankle (many other studies point to the knee and ankle as the most common sites of injury during soccer). Knee injuries resulted in the most time lost from competition and produced the greatest number of cases requiring surgery. At the ankle, lateral sprains were more common than medial ones (ie, damage to the outside ankle ligaments was much more likely than harm to the inside ligaments).
There were also a considerable number of strains of the hip-adductor muscles, the hamstrings, and the quadriceps. The hip adductors, or groin muscles, were the hottest trouble spot, accounting for 53% of muscle strains, with the hams checking in at 42% and the quads adding just 5% to the total mayhem.
This new research supports other studies which have also suggested that games are particularly risky from an injury standpoint, compared with practices. In one study, researchers found that there were 16.9 injuries per 1000 hours in games, versus 7.6 injuries per 1000 hours in practices ). In another investigation, the rate of injury during games was pegged at 13 per 1000 hours, while practice logged only three injuries for each 1000 hours of participation
How does soccer stack up against other sports in terms of injury risk?
Although endurance running is often considered to be a high-injury sport (about 50 to 65% of all endurance runners are injured in an average year), the actual rate of injury in running is comparable with that of soccer. Various studies suggest that the running injury rate is about five injuries per 1000 hours of running, with little difference between training and competition. This is a little higher than the 'practice' rate of injury for soccer but much lower than soccer's competition-related injury rate. Injury rates in other sports have been poorly studied, but it appears that soccer has one of the highest rates of athletic damage
Case report: an adolescent goal keeper with extension-related lower back pain
It is often difficult to be precise about exactly why an athlete is complaining of lower back pain. lower back pain is a common complaint by athletes and makes up some 10% of all sports injuries. Diagnoses may be non-specific, investigation unhelpful and treatment approaches are often inconsistent. There is, however, one group in whom a clear diagnosis can often be made and effective treatment offered: namely, the adolescent athlete with extension-provoked lower back pain.
History
A 17- year-old professional soccer goalkeeper complained of lower back pain when he extended his lumbar spine. What had started as a mild ache after training and playing six weeks before had progressed to the stage where his back was aching the whole time and he elected to tell me and the team physiotherapist of his discomfort. He had never suffered from lower back pain before and could not identify a clear precipitant for his pain. The pain was fairly well localised to his lower lumbar spine with no significant radiation. He had taken some Ibuprofen after training on a number of occasions which had helped but he now felt that his performance in both training and games was being compromised.
My injuries aren't many compared to others i guess...
I broke 2 fingers... sprained both my ankles countless times... injured my back a few years ago... and now my knee is acting up
broken fingers : went to polyclinic...
sprained ankles : most of the time i just rest at home, but one i went for acupunture. because one of the ankles, after i sprained it, i sprained it again before it has even started healing.
back injury : i fell backwards while making a save but my tailbone landed on a rock... i couldn't get up and i couldn't move ard for almost 2 months. I didn't see any doctor. At night my back hurts for no reason...
Knee : Well its still considered a fresh injury...
To the old men out there, i've see uncles run then suddenly fall on the ground clutching their knees...
Everyone do WARM UP before football... i think for someone my age i shouldn't be feeling like an old man with back aches... nowadays i get it quite often... i think soon my knee will give way
This is to remind u ppl out there to be careful when playing games / sports...
*the injuries above, i got them when i was 16-17... so it has stuck with me for sometime