Cricket Injuries

Common Cricket Injuries | Prevention and Treatment

Cricket is a very common game known to everyone. It is a game that involves the physical engagement or involvement of the player depending upon his role in the team. Although, during this game, all the body parts are susceptible to injury there are some parts of the body that are more vulnerable to injuries such as the lower back, hamstrings, shoulder, and ankle. The chances of injury may vary according to the position of the player in the field. Moreover, the T20 matches, which are more intense and played in a short duration, results in a significant increase in injuries due to more load on the players. There are various ways by which the player can get hurt, and simultaneously there are ways to manage and reduce the risk of these injuries by doing proper exercises. These exercises can be done under the guidance of a physiotherapist, who can help you to identify weak spots through a musculoskeletal screening, and thus help you to recover. So, let's take a look at some of the most common injuries and their prevention strategies.

 

Prevention of cricket injuries: Although many injuries in this game are not entirely preventable, there are some prevention strategies such as warm-up or cool down, proper conditioning, and maintaining strength that the player can follow to reduce the risk of injury.

 Warm-up and cool-down exercises: Warm-up and cool-down exercises should be done as a routine. Warm-up includes dynamic exercises, these should be done pre-session, and cool down includes static stretches, which should be done after the game. Doing pre and post-session exercises can reduce the risk of muscle strains.

Strengthening exercises: Strengthening exercises can reduce the risk of injury. Core stability training is particularly useful for bowlers, as it can help reduce the risk of low back pain and side strains.

 Most Common injuries in cricket players are:

 Rotator cuff injuries: The shoulder is the most mobile joint in the body, it has an amazing range of motion. Rotator cuff injuries occur due to overhead movement during bowling, throwing, fielding, and wicket-keeping.

In case of injury, your physiotherapist recommends the POLICE principle:

·   Protection: This includes initially resting the injured part and after a few days starting gentle motion.

·   Optimum Loading:  This Starts with a passive range of motion (PROM) followed by an active range of motion (AROM).

·   Ice: Applying ice for 10 minutes every hour.

·   Compression: Compression bandages of the injured part if possible.

·   Elevation: Elevation of the injured area while sitting down or lying to increase blood flow to the area.

Your physiotherapist designs an exercise program that can help you to prevent the recurrence of any shoulder injury and improve the overall performance. Your physiotherapist will also guide you for appropriate loading of the joint and rest, following a shoulder injury.

Hamstring strains: A hamstring strain is usually caused when the muscles become overloaded, leading to a strain, or a complete tear. The severity of the hamstring strain ranges from a minor strain that may feel like an ache, or a major strain that is extremely painful making it difficult to walk or stand. Hamstrings are usually injured during sprinting i.e during fast bowling while fielding or running between wickets as a batsman. The player feels a sudden or severe pain during exercise, pain or tightness while straightening or bending the leg, and weight-bearing. Physiotherapy treatment starts by POLICE principle followed by progressive strengthening through exercise, soft tissue massage, scar tissue mobilization, dry needling, and taping. And helps to enhance healing and prevent a recurrence.

Ankle sprains: An ankle sprain is a common injury in cricket. The ankle becomes stressed when the player suddenly stops or runs at high speed causing the ankle to bend further crossing the limit.  Initial treatment includes the POLICE principle and follow-up with a physiotherapist to promote recovery. An exercise program can help to increase ankle mobility and strength hence preventing reoccurrence. Depending on the severity, your physiotherapist may decide to provide you with bracing, taping, strapping, or crutches to assist in the protection of the ligaments allowing appropriate healing. Soft tissue therapy, joint mobilization, and dry needling can also be used as a pain treatment for quicker recovery.

Abdominal side strain: Side strain occurs in the side of the body involving the Oblique muscle, commonly seen in bowlers. Due to the forcible contraction of the muscle the injury occurs on the opposite side of the bowling arm. Side strains also occur because of repetitive arm action. The player feels pain and tenderness associated with internal swelling.

Treatment requires adequate rest. After examination of the injured part, for appropriate strength and conditioning, the player can gradually return to activity,

Contusions: In cricket direct impact on the muscle is commonly caused by the ball, this injury is known as contusions. The faster the speed of the ball that hits the player more severe the injury is, resulting in swelling and bruising of the area.

The POLICE principle is recommended for treatment, and medical assistance may be required for more severe contusions.

Medial epicondylitis: Medial epicondylitis or thrower's elbow is caused due to the repetitive strain of throwing a cricket ball. The player feels the weakness of the wrist and pain on the inside of the elbow. Physiotherapy treatment starts with the POLICE principle, followed by exercise regime and prevention.

 Low back pain: Low back pain is very common in fast bowlers, due to the long periods of repetitive actions when bowling or batting to diving for the wicket. The player feels pain and inflammation as a result of overstretching of a ligament of the lumbar spine. Application of ice and rest is the best treatment for lumbar pain followed by exercises.

 Lumbar Stress Fractures: Lumbar stress fractures are commonly seen in fast bowlers. Bowling, batting, and some fielding positions can strain the spine. Excessive shoulder rotation, excessive sideways trunk flexion, and greater pelvic rotation can cause a lumbar stress fracture. Huge forces and unavoidable repetition in fast bowling can cause a lumbar stress fracture.

The treatment part focuses on load management and appropriate recovery between bowling sessions. A physiotherapist does a thorough assessment and identifies any imbalance or technique issues. An exercise program is recommended to aid recovery and help to improve bowling performance.

Groin injuries: The hip flexor and adductor muscles are injured during batting, bowling, leaping, and running or while moving the thigh upwards or moving the leg across the body. Repetitive movement or quick movement can result in injury to muscle fibers and put pressure on the hip joint surfaces and bony attachments.

The physiotherapist examines the muscle strength and movement control, to identify why the problem has occurred and helps in the prevention. Recommends pre-season drills and strengthening exercises.

Wrist and hand injuries: Bones, joints, tendons, ligaments, and nerves of cricketers are injured due to the impact of playing with a heavy ball traveling at different speeds. Physiotherapists do examination and provide management with compression and ice stabilizes the joints and bones with taping and bracing.

Other injuries like Knee injuries and Head, neck, facial injuries are less common than other injuries, but it is important to note the potential for varied knee injuries in cricket. Compulsory protective headgear while batting has decreased the incidence of such injuries significantly. Those fielding close to batsmen often wears a helmet for protection and in front of the crease wear helmets for protection.

The physiotherapist works closely with the cricket fraternity to identify and analyze the risk factors. He/she helps to minimize the risk factors and progress exercises to help the player safely return to sport. If injuries occur, physiotherapy can help with effective strengthening, conditioning, and fitness strategies to improve muscular balance thus the player can return to the game as soon as possible.

 Common Sports Injuries in Tennis and their prevention

Sports injuries in Tennis

As we are all familiar with the world-famous sport - Tennis, which being a high-impact sport demanding full-body participation during running, serving, and attaining different positions while performing in the court. Because of these demands, it is important for the player to maintain strength, flexibility, and muscle conditioning, to prevent any type of injury. Lack of conditioning, overtraining, and inappropriate techniques of performing a certain task during the game can lead to injuries. However, these injuries can be minimized by doing a proper warm-up before playing, to prepare your muscles for the demands of the game. During Sports, our body is under a lot of pressure, which sometimes leads to wear and tear in the muscles, joints, and bones. Sports injuries can be well treated by your physiotherapist, he/she helps you to recover rapidly and also provides some education on the prevention of further injuries. In this blog, we will provide you with common types of injuries suffered by the tennis players and their prevention strategies.

 

Prevention

Warm-up

Start with a brisk walk for, ten-minutes, then move on to stretching exercises, to condition your muscles and prevent muscle cramps. It is also advisable to gently stretch and warm up by standing hamstring stretch, standing calf stretch, hip adductor stretch,  low back stretching until you can feel a stretch. Hold the stretch for ten seconds and repeat ten times. Finally, rotate your shoulders and wrists in a clockwise and anticlockwise direction, ten times each.

 

Hydrated

Staying hydrated is essential as it increases your stamina, speed, and concentration levels. In extreme cases, dehydration may cause nausea and vomiting.

 

Intake of food

Continuous consumption of energy during the game might cause loss of stamina resulting in an imbalance that might further cause injury.   So it is good to have some food containing a balanced combination of vitamins and minerals during the intervals, it helps to remain alert and also boosts energy levels.

 

Some common forms of injuries in tennis players are as follows:

Rotator cuff injuries

Shoulder Impingement

Rotator cuff injuries and shoulder impingement occur due to the repetitive overhead movement required to serve and hit the ball. These repetitive concentric and eccentric movements place demands to maintain high levels of muscular control, required to maintain the stability of the shoulder joint during tennis strokes.

Treatment for these conditions is rest, ice, Kinesio- taping and anti-inflammatory medications. To increase the flexibility of the muscles, ligaments and tendons, range of motion, and strengthening exercises can be designed by your physiotherapist:

·         External rotation with resistance (90 ⁰ abduction)

·         External rotation in a prone position (plyometric)

·         External rotation with scapular retraction

·         Isotonic rotator cuff exercises.

Tennis elbow

Golfer's elbow

Tennis elbow injury occurs to the tendons located on the outer side of the elbow, this overuse and overload occurs from the serve and forehand strokes whereas medial epicondylitis is caused due to excessive use of topspin and overload on the backhand stroke-causing pain and inflammation. The racquet must be of the proper size for gripping. Treatment for tennis and golfer's elbow involves rest, ice, Kinesio- taping, and anti-inflammatory medications. A wrist brace or tennis elbow band can be used and special physiotherapy exercises for stretching and strengthening the muscles is beneficial.

·         Gripping exercises

·         Flexor and extensor wrist curls

·         Forearm pronation and supination with dumbbells

·         Ball dribbling on wall

·         Plyometric wrist snaps.

 

Wrist strain

Carpal tunnel syndrome

These injuries occur due to the laid-back grip, rotation of the palm upward, and quickly turning the wrist to perform the topspin. Treatment for these conditions involve rest, ice, Kinesio- taping and anti-inflammatory medications and range of motion and strengthening exercises:

·         Wrist flexion

·         Wrist extension

·         Wrist ulnar deviation

·         Wrist radial deviation

·         All the above exercises can be done with dumbbells.

 

Lower Back pain

Players suffer from low back pain due to the fast weight transfers, jumping, and twisting, resulting in repeated flexion, extension, rotation and lateral flexion of the spine commonly required during cocking or loading phase of the tennis serve.  The physiotherapist designs strengthening exercises for back and abdominal muscles to increase strength:

 

·         Abdominal bracing with alternate arm and leg lowered

·         Sit-ups

·         Side planks

·         Core stabilization

·         Lunge with rotation

·         Knee to chest with rotation on a stability ball

·         Unilateral knee to chest with rotation.

Femoroacetabular impingement

Labral tears

Femoroacetabular impingement and labral tears can occur in tennis players due to the multidirectional movement pattern, loading and abruptly starting, cutting, twisting, and stopping. This form of hip injury can be treated with the help of RICE and physiotherapy sessions under the guidance of a physiotherapist.

 

·         Hip abduction and adduction

·         Elastic tubing kick exercise

·         Plyometrics lateral steps overs

·         Lunge with exercises.

·         Clamshells

·         Reverse clamshells.

 

Patella tendinopathy

Medial collateral ligament (MCL) sprain

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) sprain

Calf strain

Rectus femoris

Hamstring strain

Lower legs tend to bear most of the pressure, as the players are often required to perform sudden movements and to shift their balance. When a muscle is overstretched it becomes prone to tears. The tennis players need to constantly twist, turn and change speed, therefore both the patella tendon below the kneecap and the medial ligament inside it can be easily damaged.

If damaged it is important to stop immediately and treat the knee with RICE, braces, Kinesio- taping and physiotherapy sessions:

·         Sitting knee flexion-extension with resistance or weight

·         Prone Knee flexion-extension with resistance or weight

·         Unilateral standing

·         Squats.

·         Equilibrium board exercises

 

Sprained Ankle

Achilles tendonitis

Ankles are the most commonly prone to injury, when the ligament that supports the joint gets overstretched due to repeated jumping, stepping on an uneven surface or incorrect stepping.

The most severe form of the injury needs a brace or cast for few weeks to help in the healing process. Physical activity worsens the pain and is usually treated with some rest, ice, kinesio- taping, stretching, and anti-inflammatory medicine, followed by physiotherapy.

 

·         Ankle dorxi flexion with resistance

·         Ankle plantarflexion with resistance

·         Eversion and inversion with resistance

·         Equilibrium board exercises

·         Heel raises

·         Toe raises

 

After playing tennis

In the end simple warm down helps in breathing and heart rate returns to normal levels, causing muscles to relax. It also reduces the risk of post-exercise soreness by removing lactic acid from your muscles. After relaxing take a 5-minute walk followed by stretches carried out during your warm-up, drink plenty of water and have something to eat to regain energy.

The treatment will depend upon the nature of the injury. Your physiotherapist will work to relieve the painful symptoms and helps to restore the function so that you can return to sports without pain. And also provides you with proactive advice so that you can avoid similar situations that put you at risk of an injury in the future.