Shotgunbagsy

All too often professional footballers sustain injuries which see them sitting the season out for months on end. We saw a perfect example as Kelly tweaked his hamstring belting down the right wing in the recent match up against West Ham (which we lost 3-1 (this will serve as my update post for the occasion)). Whenever you’re playing footy yourself, though, it never seems to be anything near as brutal – a testy ankle or a stud wound, perhaps – but we never take anywhere near as much time out as the pros. Should we?

I’ve got a recurrent ankle injury myself, but if I can run on it I’ll always dig in and play the game. If I were to do anything more serious I would definitely try and find help, but what does that actually involve? Well you lucky people can thank me for digging around on the internet and smashing my findings together with my own experience to plan the most appropriate course of action.This is a matter of opinion, these tips have not been checked, much less approved, by anyone with a medical stature.

Sit down. Shut up. This might sound like a bit of a harsh thing to tell someone that’s just had a serious injury, but it’s to be said with the most concerned of tones. The first couple of times I took a nasty knock in a Saturday league game I was waving my arms around and calling for a substitution in the first couple of minutes. With your ankle on fire you assume it’s all over, and you don’t want the team to be down a player for 10 minutes. The best course of action is to sit down.. let the pain subside and try it out again 5 minutes later. If it’s a horrible one you’ll know before you kick a ball again, if it’s not you’ll have saved yourself the embarrassment and the time you’d have saved wailing for a sub would still have been taken by him warming up.

Keep the boot on. Football injuries are, more often than not, pressure wounds. You’re not going to have any deep cuts (unless it’s something a bit more severe than a stamp or a scrape) and you’re probably going to be looking at some swelling. If you keep your boot/shin pads on you’ll help to keep the local area from swelling – this is worth remembering as initial reactions are often to shed the gear as quickly as possible. In fact, let’s put the swelling into context…

RICE. To keep the swelling down and allow your injury to heal better – remember this little acronym (this is common knowledge, and although I refuse to endorse this as medically approved (in case I get in any trouble) it’s as near as dammit.).

Rest – Stop stressing the injury. Over time you’ll do well to start using it as regularly as possible to rehabilitate, but straight off the mark you need to simmer down and let your natural defences work their magic.

Ice – Keeping the area as cold as possible is essential in keeping swelling to a minimum.

Compression – Similarly; this is a very effective way to keep your swelling in check

Elevation – If your ankle/shoulder/wrist/other affected area is kept above your heart the blood will be pumping up hill, so you won’t experience as much discomfort.

Doctor. This should probably be a little bit higher on the list, but getting medical help is definitely worth doing. Even if you just get given a small pamphlet that tells you to RICE it you’ll have the injury on record. When/if you come to visiting the doctor later down the line (fingers crossed this isn’t the case) s/he’ll be able to look at your past instances and factor them into future treatments.

Legal Advice. Sometimes you my experience a serious injury. If you’re playing in an official league you’ll be covered by the insurance of the league or at least the team – in this case you’ll be in good hands. when you’re playing jumpers-for-goal posts you might find the proceedings a little more difficult, but in any case you should follow up with some professional help. Personal injury solicitors – like Access Legal – are worth approaching to ask questions about cases in which you may have a claim: they have delegated teams to deal with sports injury claims. It might seem like a difficult process to go through, but getting some professional help is bound to help things at least go through the proper channels.

Here’s a perfect example of how such an injury would occur thanks to Man Utd’s Rafael during their spanking earlier this week:

The easiest way to avoid injury is to avoid contact sport all together, but I for one would prefer to sustain an injury playing footy than not play at all. What do you reckon?