Pros and Cons

EVER wondered what makes our cricketers prone to injury? Or, at a more mundane level, why your body refuses to cooperate three days into you...

EVER wondered what makes our cricketers prone to injury? Or, at a more mundane level, why your body refuses to cooperate three days into your new exercise schedule? The basic cause is the same: In this era of flat abs-obsessions, we have become far more demanding of our bodies, thereby upping the injury risks. Management of athletic injuries calls for much more than treatment of the injured area.

What exactly are sports injuries?
There are chiefly two kinds: trauma/acute and indirect. Trauma injuries occur due to outright physical contacta punch on the nose during boxing, or a kick on the shin during soccerwhile indirect injuries impact a point away from the site of stress. The tissues involved belong to the bone, ligaments or specialised structures inside the joints.

Management of indirect injuries depends on the damaged tissue. A ruptured ligament could call for surgery, while a partial rupture could be treated with rest, ice-application, anti-inflammatory drugs or compression bandages, says Dr Yash Gulati, senior consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Apollo Hospital, New Delhi.

What other injuries impact athletes?
Of bigger concern to pros are overuse injuries, which occur when their bodies are over-stressed. This could lead to subsequent breakdown of the tissue, resulting in stress or overuse injury. All tissuesfrom bones stress fractures to bursa chronic bursitisare vulnerable, says Dr Gulati. The first symptom is inflammation, followed by tissue breakdown. The chief causes: muscle imbalance, inadequate fitness and inadequate warm-ups.

So what are the commonest sports injuries?
Dr Gulati lists the prime enemies of the Shoaibs and Balajis of the world:

MUSCLE INJURIES: Described as a muscle pull, most of these occur due to a sudden excessive demand during contraction or an extreme stretch. Although injuries may occur anywhere in the contractile unit, the junction between the muscle and the tendon is the weak zone; the hamstring being the most susceptible.
TREATMENT: Symptomatic treatment followed by physiotherapy and rehab. If untreated or inadequately treated, it can cause chronic pain. Following pain relief, strengthening and stretching exercises of the muscle are extremely important.

TENDON INJURIES: Perhaps the commonest overuse injury, this occurs where the tendon is attached to the bone, usually around the elbow tennis elbow, golfers elbow, the ankle and the knee jumpers knee or joggers knee.
TREATMENT: Physiotherapy and stretching exercises.

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BONE INJURIES: Or stress fractures, usually in the leg bone or foot bone and sometimes around the hip, most seen in marathon-runners and cricketers exposed to repeated stresses.
TREATMENT: Bone scans may be necessary. Most can be treated with rest.