The 5 Most Common Soccer Injuries

The moment when you or a loved one breaks a bone or suffers any of a number of common soccer injuries is never an enjoyable one. Maybe you hear the dreaded “popping” sound of a torn ACL, or perhaps the sound is your daughter or son crying out during practice. Whatever the case may be, sports-related injuries are incredibly common, and treating soccer injuries is easy and accessible when you come to the right physicians.

Understanding the Most Common Soccer Injuries

In general, soccer is a safe physical activity, and players only experience injuries at one-fifth the rate of American football players. Players are still susceptible to injury, however: each year, nearly 250,000 athletes are treated in emergency rooms for soccer-related injuries. Players should always remain wary of collisions and sudden jolting movements, such as starting and stopping, that can lead to common soccer injuries.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the most common soccer injuries:

Sprains and Strains: usually involving the knee or ankle joints, sprains and strains are very common in soccer, and most often occur as a result of sudden stopping movements. In extreme cases of strained ligaments, ACL tears are common injuries where the Anterior Cruciate Ligament is torn or detached from the ankle joint. In mild cases, injuries may include rolled ankles or light sprains which will need to be treated to prevent swelling.

Fractures: colliding with another player can have very harmful results. While often only resulting in cuts or bruises, collisions with another player can result in painful fractures.

Head Injuries: such head-on collisions carry a great risk of causing concussions. Roughly 200,000 U.S. athletes experience sports-related concussions each year. Concussion describes a mild form of brain trauma, with clear symptoms usually involving headache, loss of consciousness, dizziness, and often memory loss.

Tendinitis: as inflammation is a natural way that the body responds to injury, tendonitis is a natural inflammatory response to injury to a tendon.

Dermal Injuries: a player can suffer any number of mild injuries, from cuts and bruises to deep lacerations that may require immediate attention and stitches.

What to Do about Common Soccer Injuries

So what should you do about these common soccer-related injuries? We can give you ways to prevent common soccer injuries from happening in the first place.

To understand the scope of properly addressing soccer injuries, we can think of the “3 P’s” of treatment: Preparation, Prevention, and Protection.

The 3 P’s: Preparation, Prevention, and Protection

Preparation is fairly straightforward: a majority of injuries can be avoided if an athlete properly maintains fitness, stretches well, and hydrates.

Prevention partly encompasses the other two P’s, though it also means making sure that your surroundings are ideal for ensuring safe physical activity. Prevention involves things like making sure the playing area is kept in ideal condition, hazards are dealt with, and players adhere to simple rules in order to stay within the bounds of safety.

Protection is the most intuitive of the P’s, and often the most overlooked. Athletes may find it exciting and adrenaline-inducing to play soccer without proper equipment and bodily protection, but at what cost? Using proper shoes with molded cleats, wearing shin guards, and gloves when necessary are easy ways to prevent an array of common soccer injuries.

If you or a loved one has been injured on or off the field, let us know! Physical therapy can help treat and prevent all kinds of injuries, including soccer related ones. Call our office or schedule an appointment to keep you and your loved ones healthy all season long.