Soccer Physio for Common Injuries IN MELBOURNE
December 2017
By Claire Mc Guinness, Physiotherapist
Soccer is the most popular sport in the world.
Soccer builds teamwork, cardiovascular performance, and develops balance, agility, coordination and core strength. It is enjoyed by young and old, and people of all body sizes, but like all sports soccer can take its toll, leading to various injuries.
Soccer injuries can be broken down into two categories.
Impact/traumatic injuries
Bruises, scrapes, breaks or fractures caused by kicks, head-butts, trips, or falls.
Muscle, ligament and joint injuries
These injuries can result from over-use of the muscles, joints, and tendons. Such injuries include muscle tears, tendon strains and tears, shin splints, patellar tendinopathy (knee pain), ankle pain and even stress fractures.
Research by Almeida et al (2013) show that the knee and thigh are the most commonly injured body parts in soccer. Other common soccer injuries include pulled muscles, twisted joints, tendon injuries caused by overuse, twists, and falls. Your local sports physiotherapist can help treat and prevent soccer injuries.
There isn’t much you can do when it comes to impact injuries, but often preventative physiotherapy can make all the difference when it comes to strains, twists, and sprains caused by overuse or strain.
How?
Soccer specific physiotherapy exercise programs can help reduce injury, and even increase performance. The most recent, and well researched program is the FIFA 11+ program. Silvers-Granelli et al (2015) found that the "FIFA 11+ significantly reduced injury rates by 46.1% and decreased time loss to injury by 28.6% in the competitive male collegiate soccer player". In another study by the same group in 2017, showed a 4.25 fold in reduction of an ACL injury occurring.
We know these programs work. Its so simple. Talk to your coach and trainers about the FIFA 11+ program and get it started at your local club to help your whole team not only perform better, but reduce injuries, keeping more players available to play, equaling more wins!
If you are interested in booking an appointment with a local Sports Physiotherapist with a special interest in soccer Injuries, please book online here or call your nearest Melbourne Sports Physiotherapy clinic.
References:
- Incidence of musculoskeletal injury in soccer players, Pedro Sávio Macedo de Almeida; Ângelo Pontes Scotta; Bárbara de Mattos Pimentel; Sedenir Batista Júnior; Yasmin Rodrigues Sampaio, Rev Bras Med Esporte vol.19 no.2 São Paulo Mar./Apr. 2013.
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Does the FIFA 11+ Injury Prevention Program Reduce the Incidence of ACL Injury in Male Soccer Players? Silvers-Granelli HJ, Bizzin M, Arundale A, Mandelbaum BR, Snyder-Mackley I, Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2017 Oct;475(10):2447-2455.
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