When wrestler Vinesh Phogat left the wrestling mat in tears after she had to forfeit the match owing to a knee injury at Rio in the Women’s Freestyle 48kg category, her ill fortune brought to attention the lack of proper awareness about sports injuries in the country.
Orthopedicians specialising in sports injuries say that there is a burning need to educate athletes and sport enthusiasts about possible injuries and prevention strategies to combat them.
Lack of knowledgeThe most common reason for sports injuries is inadequate knowledge about fitness and prevention strategies related to their particular sport. “If, as a sports player, I don’t know how much I should train to be fit, and start playing vigorously, I could get injured,” said Arun Kumar Rawal, Head (Orthopaedic and Sports Physiotherapy), People Tree Hospitals. Dr. Rawal recently conducted a programme at People Tree to educate athletes on how to maximise performance without injuries, taking into consideration their physical, mental and nutritional health.
Dr. Pradeep Kocheeppan, consultant sports medicine and shoulder-and-knee surgeon at Apollo Hospitals, who is associated with the Sports Association of India, and has treated athletes for national hockey, swimming and taekwondo teams, said that while sport-specific injury prevention strategies existed, they were seldom followed. “There are injury prevention strategies for persons who sit on a computer for long hours, but how many follow them?” he asked.
Overworked athletesAnother major issue was overworking young athletes. “The West has recognised that initiating sportspersons to one particular sport at a very young age could lead to injuries, but we still continue this practice,” said Dr. Kocheeppan. He added that it was necessary to start an awareness campaign to stop sports injuries to prevent losing good athletes to injuries.
