Question

The Muscles and Joints. What common musculoskeletal system injuries are professional football players most prone to and why?

Answer 1

The professional footballers are most prone to the following musculoskeletal injuries:

• Hamstring strains
• Knee injuries
• Achilles tendonitis
• Shin splints
• Concussions
• Sprains

Hamstring strains:

Hamstrings are the muscles that run from the bottom of the buttocks to the back of the knees that are responsible for bending or flexing. Hamstring strain is a sudden sharp pain at the back of the thigh.

It occurs while running or performing a high kick or a fast, stretching movement.

Knee injuries:

Knee injuries can occur due to improper landing, running hard, playing without a proper warm-up, or when there is a sudden impactful contact with something.

Knee ligament injuries can also be caused by changing directions suddenly while running and taking direct blows to the knees.

Achilles tendonitis:

It is an injury of the Achilles tendon which connects the calf muscle to the heel bone.

Symptoms include pain, inflammation and degeneration or rupture of Achilles tendon.

Footballers are more prone to it due to the overuse of Achilles tendon and also excessive running on hard surface of the football grounds.

Shin splints:

Shin splints results in pain in the front of the lower leg due to the inflammation of the muscles, tendons and bone tissue around tibia/shinbone. Shin splints is caused due to excessive running, using improper or worn-out footwear, improper warm-up or exercise technique or stretching or overusing the lower legs, anatomical abnormality of having overpronated or flat feet

Concussions:

It is a change in mental state due to a traumatic impact to the brain. Symptoms include headache, dizziness, nausea, loss of balance, drowsiness, numbness/tingling, difficulty in concentrating, and blurry vision. It usually occurs during a tackle, as the head snaps and strikes the ground.

Sprains:

Sprains occur when ligaments are torn or stretched. Sprain results when a footballer falls unexpectedly or when there is twist in wrists, ankles, or knees. When this happens, the joint will be dislocated in an unnatural way and ligaments will be ruptured causing sprain.