When participating in team or individual sports, or even with day to day physical activity, it is inevitable that sport injuries are likely to happen. Sports injuries can range in severity from relatively minor injuries (ie. strained hamstring) to more significant injuries and when they do you might be in need of some physical therapy. Below is a list of injuries we treat :
- Partial or full tearing of the ligaments in the ankle (often a lateral ankle sprain)
- Significant injury to the major ligaments that stabilize the knee (like the ACL or MCL)
- Full or partial tearing of the meniscus in the knee
- An acute episode of mechanical low back pain
- Disc herniation or protrusion (a more rare type of back injury)
- Nerve irritation (like ‘burners and stingers’, which is more common in contact sports like football and rugby)
- Tennis elbow (also known as ‘lateral epicondylitis’ or ‘lateral epicondylopathy’)
- Golfer’s elbow (also known as ‘medial epicondylitis’ or ‘medial epicondylopathy’)
- Rotator cuff strain or tear
- Shoulder impingement
- Tendinitis of various areas
Will I need Physical Therapy?
The first step to getting an accurate diagnosis of your injury is to have a proper orthopaedic assessment. It is always preferable to seek out a trained professional to properly assess you. Your injury may be more complicated than it seems and information that may be available to you through means such as the internet may not provide you with the most accurate information for your specific circumstance.
Should I see my doctor or physiotherapist first?
Although it is a good idea for you to see your family physician regarding your injury, it is not always necessary to see them first. Having an assessment with a registered physiotherapy will ensure that you’re on the road to recovery as soon as possible. Sometimes waiting periods to see your family physician can be quite lengthy, so why miss out on the opportunity to start treatment sessions to get you better in a more timely fashion. With cases of acute low back pain as an example, some patients can respond fairly quickly to the proper mechanical treatment and may only need a minimal amount of physical therapy sessions to feel better. Seeing a physical therapist first to address your sports related injury and then getting a referral from your physician for physiotherapy treatment may be a good option. Although, if you believe that your injury may require urgent medical attention, making a visit to the emergency may be your best course of action.
If you have questions about how physical therapy may help you or someone you care about, please contact us today.