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According to physioroom.com there are over “240 million registered players worldwide” and this does not include all the recreational football players who typically play every Saturday on the local playing fields. It has been said that it is the most popular sport in the world.

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Football injuries in general are less severe in their nature. Most are the result of repetitive training and trauma. These include sprains (lateral ankle) and strains (hamstrings and groin) as well as trauma due to a collision from another player.

Of the more serious conditions ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injuries are ranked as one of the top 5 common

Susan’s first love is dance, anything to do with of movement. She as a nurse in Canada soon left the profession when she the UK as she wanted a deeper connection with her clients. For many she worked in both health and teaching 20+ classes a week running GP referral schemes. She make better use of all her knowledge which led her to retrain as Massage and Remedial Soft Therapist. Currently she is the NLSSM and specialises in Oncology Massage. She is the Sports Massage: Hands on Therapists and is the Sports feature writer for Massage volunteers her time as a member of GCMT. her on Massage videos injuries associated with football. Football places a high demand on the knee and most of the ACL tears occur when the player pivots and lands from a jumping motion. (Less that 20% are from contact injuries). Dr. Betram Zarins MD has an excellent video on YouTube demonstrating the process of ACL reconstruction using animation, so those of you that get a bit squeamish seeing the real thing, his video will take you through the process with minimal stress. (http://www.youtube.com/user/

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BertramZarinsMD). Rehabilitation can be lengthy and recovery can take between 4 – 7 months before the knee feels normal and athlete can return to sporting activities. For the first couple of weeks the goals are to minimize the swelling, decrease pain, encourage and regain movement. It is important to get a patient doing some walking or cycling as soon as possible this helps to improve strength as well. Massage therapists will work alongside the medical team to improve a client’s range of motion and their soft tissue recovery. The strength and conditioning will be the role of the other team members that could include the Strength and Conditioning Coach, a Sports Therapist or Physiotherapist.

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Players can cover between 8-11 km during a 90 minute game wherein a majority of injuries occur in the last 10 minutes as well as recurring injuries will flair up during this part of the match. One of the major factors is this is when a player is tired and the energy supply to the muscles is low. Research shows that on average players are operating at 75% of their VO2 max during the 90 minutes of playing which will contribute significantly in depleting their energy stores. (http://www. brianmac.co.uk/football/energy.htm)

Common injuries such as hamstring and groin strains are often a result of their repetitive training workload. At the end of the training sessions they have shooting drills, having just trained for an hour and then repetitively smashing football at the goal, this is the time that the rectus femoris and groin problems start to show up. The most common movement associated with this problem is when they are trying to curl the ball and are using a massive amount of tension on internal rotation which is being loaded through the pelvis and leg. To understand the process and to have a clearer idea of what happens I would suggest you watch YouTube videos of how David Beckham kicks the ball. (see below for suggested videos). Watch the way that he shoots and you will be able to spot all his movements and how he whips the ball towards the nets. Roughly what happens during the swing is the hip will start off in extension, adduction and as they are starting the strike they will start to flex the hip and laterally rotate and slightly abduct and then after the ball has been contacted they will continue through flexion medially rotating their hip and adducting again. This is known as whipping (trying to curl it). The repetitive movement places tension through the muscles of the legs which can lead to various muscle strains.

Barry Sigrist’s strategy (Watford Football Club, Sport & Remedial Massage Therapist and Sports Therapist) is to have players that might need treatment for “stiffness” come in before their training session, depending on how many need to be seen and how many therapists are on hand they will come between 9 am and 10 prior to starting their activation exercise based warm up at 10:15 followed by training at 11. The purpose of the pre training soft tissue work is to start with a general flush out, moving on to deeper work and finish off with the high velocity techniques before the game. Stimulation is important it prepares them mentally and has a massive psychological element. They feel prepared and the process becomes a part of their ritual. The more intense remedial work will be after the session as it is not advisable to give them a new range that they are not use to controlling. They have protocols that players have to follow in their recovery i.e. coming in everyday for 10 minutes of rehab work, exercise element, current injury prevention strategy etc…

But not all soft tissue problems come from training /playing but can be a result of home life and social habits. It is important to look at the player holistically and take in to consideration what is happening away from the club as well as in it. A prime example is a very tall player who bought a new car that was unfortunately not the appropriate size for his height. The small car forced him to scrunch up and he was spending a great deal of time driving to and from work, as a result he developed lower back pain. It proved to be a bit of a puzzle until the assessment of his problem was broadened to include his lifestyle.