Why are we witnessing an increase in injuries within professional sport settings?

Within the first three months of the current Premier League, there had been over 190 injuries which according to Ben Dinnery, is a 15% increase compared to the previous 4 seasons. Currently, women's football is experiencing an epidemic when it comes to ACL injuries. The NBA has also faced its troubles with injury incidences increasing.

The NBA is said to generate approx $10b whilst the Premier League is said to generate approx £5.5b. It goes without saying, how fundamental these athletes are, in the success of these sporting leagues. Would fans still spend as much money on tickets to attend games, if their favourite player was injured? Will players 'Shelf life' decrease over time due to injuries? If so, how much pressure does this then put, on teams to continuously rebuild a team? How much more money would that then cost?

So the big question here is, why are injuries on the increase? There is a lot more money being invested into Sport Science now, than ever before. Professional sport teams, and in particular, those in the NBA and Premier league now have bigger multidisciplinary teams with better facilities also. So where are we going wrong? Below I will discuss a couple options:

If we delve into the Premier League, it has been recorded that the length of matches on average are increasing. In the laws of the game, the duration of a football match is set to be 90mins, consisting of two 45mins halves. Having said this, a referee will add time for events such as injuries and substitutions where time might be lost. For the season of 22-23 the average length of game time was 98:27mins, and so far for 23-24 it is at 101:32, granted we are currently still early into this season. With that being said, 98:27mins is in fact 8:27mins longer than the game should last. All teams in the league must play 38 games in a season, which with this additional time, could amount up to an extra 5hrs of match minutes played! Managers must manage the minutes played by each player. This is to reduce fatigue and likelihood of injury. This can be difficult for managers when we can see that the amount of minutes played can sometimes be out of their hands and along with the added pressure of being in the middle of a game and taking players off could sacrifice a win and overall teams success.

Mobility exercises have very much grown in popularity, and in many cases, rightly so. One thing that we might all agree on, is that our bodies are truly magical, when it comes to adapting to regular demands. Let's take Michael Phelps as an example. He is double jointed at his ankles, allowing him an extra 15% bend at his ankles. His size 14 feet work very well with his legs to operate much similarly to flippers and to support, he is also double-jointed at his elbows, helping him to propel through the water. On an assessment, these findings may encourage one to provide a strengthening program and result into exploring methods to reduce mobility and stabilise these joints as much as possible. Many would argue that this would not be ideal for Michael, as these traits are what helps set him apart from his competition. I say all that to say this, it is possible, that some athletes are presenting with signs/symptoms that would indicate mobility issues and therefore being prescribed mobility based exercises for prehab and or rehab. In doing so, are we actually putting the athlete at risk of further injury? When we are performing mobilisation exercises, we are looking at the potential to reduce muscle tightness but are we on occasion changing an athletes muscle tone? Muscle tone we know, can play an important role in reducing risk of injury. We must also consider that increasing mobility at one joint can jeopardise the joint above or below. Changing the structure to one joint can in fact increase instability at the another joint. Therefore prescribing mobility exercises can in fact be counter productive and should be prescribed with much consideration.

To conclude, I think it is fair to state that sport entertainment continues to grow in demand. This comes with pressure to constantly perform and to bring the best entertainment to the fans, who in turn, contribute large amounts of revenue to the world of sport. With this, we are witnessing athletes being exposed to an increased risk of injury. We require further research into ways we can reduce the risk of injury, to best protect our athletes and sport as we know it. I invite all feedback and discussions, so feel free to drop me an email. i'd love to hear your thoughts.