Top 5 Toughest In-Season Sports Injuries

What Sports Injuries are Toughest to Manage In-Season?

We see lots of athletes at SSOR who are battling injuries during the season.   Some injuries can be played through, others are season-ending, and some are not season-ending, but need time that the athlete just doesn’t have.  Weeks roll on by, the athlete does rehab diligently every day, but well, some injuries just need time to heal.  These injuries can not only screw up a season, but also screw up a fantasy team!   So what sports injuries are the toughest to manage in-season?

In-Season Sports Injuries

  1. High ankle sprains. High ankle sprains, unlike the much more common “rolled” ankle or
    inversion ankle sprain, are a giant headache.  We’ve blogged about these injuries before, but this injury just needs protection and time that an athlete doesn’t have.  Figure 3-4 weeks out, at least, with a high ankle sprain.  All the usual rehab interventions for ankle sprains don’t do much to speed these up. High ankle sprains hurt and they’re really frustrating!
  2. Hip Pointer. Oh boy. These babies hurt.  A hip pointer is basically a bruise at the top of the pelvic bone, the iliac crest.  These hurt so much because it’s just about where every abdominal muscle attaches.  Breathing, coughing, and straining even hurt, let alone running, twisting, cutting, etc.   Again, not a whole lot you can do here – need rest and time.
  3. Rib sprains/rib muscle strains/rib fractures. You can’t exactly “cast” a rib or wrap it with an ACE wrap (if you do, you’ll suffocate!).   Even normal, resting breathing can hurt with these.  How exactly do you rest a muscle/bone/ligament that is critical to breathing?   Well, you can’t.  Just need to rest these injuries.  “3b” in this category is abdominal muscle strains – kind of the same idea.  Just to sit up in bed causes an abdominal muscle contraction and that can even hurt!
  4. Hamstring strains. Without digressing into a blog about hamstring strains, these injuries are tough to manage in-season because it’s not so much the healing time as it is the ability of the muscle to tolerate sprinting and full-speed sports activities. The speed of contraction during sports activities is tough to replicate in physical therapy.  Many athletes have good strength and full motion, but only have pain at high rates of speed.  Even with a minor hamstring strain, most athletes are out at least two weeks.
  5. Concussions. We don’t have to tell you how hot of a topic concussions are right now. These are brain injuries.   We can definitely help the healing process with rehab, but ultimately, the brain needs time to recover after a concussion.  Recovery isn’t just about sports – this affects the ability to live.  Athletes struggle to read, sit in class, and watch TV without headaches or bend over without dizziness.

The physical therapists at SSOR know how to best treat the in-season sports injuries.  We’ve managed them for athletes at the highest level.  It would be a privilege to serve you, give us a call!  We have locations for physical therapy in Overland Park and Prairie Village.