Football (Soccer)
Football can place a huge demand on the body. It has been shown that the average elite player will cover 10km over the course of a 90 minute game. This is performed at a heart rate 80-90% of maximum and is dispersed with passing, shooting, jumping, landing, turning and tackling (Ekblom, 1986). Consequently, footballers are at risk of a wide variety of injuries.
Physiotherapy can help effectively diagnose and manage injuries, ensuring that you return to the field fully fit, in a timely fashion and with minimal chance of re-injury. Lambton Physiotherapy utilises the protocols outlined by FIFA and its medical wing, including the “11+”
Common Football Injuries
Ankle Injuries
Studies have shown that ankle sprains account for roughly 1/3 of all injuries in football (Nielsen and Yde, 1989). Whilst many “rolled ankles” may be viewed as trivial, it is extremely important to manage these injuries properly. The rate of recurrence of these injuries has been shown to be as high as 73% (Yeung et al., 1994). A supportive brace prescribed by your physiotherapist has been shown to decrease recurrence.
Muscular strains
Of the 10km elite footballers run in each match, 8 – 18% is done at maximal speed (sprinting) (Ekblom 1986), while the game necessitates rapid speeding up, slowing down and direction change. The player also needs to move their body to extremes of motion in order to control or contest for the ball. These factors lead to a high rate of muscular stains of the hamstring, thigh, calf or groin.
Knee Injuries
The knee accounts for 11 – 25% of all football-related injuries (Junge and Dvorak, 2004). Injuries to the soft tissue structures around the knee joint are common due to the many compromising positions the lower limb enters during a match. The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is the primary stabiliser of the knee joint. ACL ruptures have an incidence of 0.063 injuries for every 1000 hours of play (Bjordal et al, 1997).
Overuse injuries
Due to the physical demands of the game, footballers are subject to numerous overuse injuries involving the tendons and other structures of the foot/ankle, shins/calf, knee and the hip/groin.
Biomechanical issues, overtraining and other factors can collude to produce pain and dysfunction. The Physiotherapists at Lambton Physio are trained to correctly manage these conditions towards a solution.
Other sports medicine and sports physiotherapy services we provide: