We understand sports injuries

Our sports physios understand how injuries can affect your performance and participation. As well as looking after elite athletes, our expert clinicians also compete at representative or national level.

A variety of factors influence the likelihood of developing a sports injury including overtraining, lack of conditioning, and improper form or technique.

Chronic sports injuries typically develop from prolonged overuse of a specific limb or joint(s). If left untreated there is potential for seemingly minor injuries to worsen to the point of non-participation.

The most common acute sports injuries (contusions, strains, sprains, wounds, bone fractures, dislocations and concussions) are often caused by trauma occurring after a blow or a fall.

Our sports physios are experts at assessing, diagnosing and devising a treatment programme.

Our Sports Injury Assessment Process

• Obtain a detailed history of the client’s symptoms, how the injury occurred and how this affects functionality
• Perform a thorough physical examination of the injury, assessing range of motion, strength and stability
• Examine further if required – refer the athlete for X-rays or ultrasound imaging
• Refer to specialists (sports doctors or orthopaedic surgeons) if needed

How we treat sports injuries

At Physiosouth we focus on sport-specific rehabilitation and follow a three-stage treatment process:

Stage 1: Maximise protection and heal damaged tissue

Our physiotherapists use different manual treatment techniques to reduce pain, swelling, promote healing and restore range of motion and muscle activation. We offer advice on modifying training loads and identifying and managing risk factors (training errors or biomechanics).

Stage 2: Gradual tissue loading

We apply therapeutic load to the damaged tissue to induce a positive adaptation and increase tissue resilience and strength. The goal is for the previously injured tissue to cope with functional loads relevant to specific sports demands, with less chance of re-injury. Management of any strength deficits and functional deficits (balance, power, agility and function-specific movements) are addressed via a specific exercise programme.

Stage 3: Return to activity

A supervised, progressive re-introduction to athletic activity including feedback about technique, preventative strategies to reduce the chance of further injury as well as sport-specific testing.

Outcome of treatment

Physiotherapy is a safe and conservative approach to managing an injury and has been proven to have a high success rate in assisting athletes to return to their sport or level of activity. Early intervention often results in better, more cost-effective long-term outcomes.

We use evidence-based outcome measures to judge whether the athlete is ready to return to sport. This usually consists of a battery of tests that measure a range of motion, and strength and includes some functional drills.

Pre-season functional movement screenings

Season analysis reviews and pre-season screenings are beneficial for preventing injuries in athletes. A functional movement screen can assess movement patterns in athletes in order to identify who might be at risk. A specific strength and conditioning programme can then target any muscle imbalances, reducing the risk of injury or re-injury and improving performance.