Basketball is a sport that can place very high levels of stress on the human body due to its intense nature and the level of demand required to play at a competitive standard.
Injuries in basketball can be both acute or chronic in nature and knowing how to manage these and when to seek professional help from either your doctor or physiotherapist is crucial to minimise recovery time and reduce the likelihood of developing a season or career ending injury.
A literature review published by the British Medical Journal comparing 11 studies over the past 10 years that reported the incidence of basketball injuries in both male, female and adolescent players concluded with the following results:
- A total of 12960 injuries were reported
- The ankle and knee are the most commonly injured body sites. Ankle injuries accounted for 21.9% and knee injuries accounted for 17.8% of all reported injuries.
- Hip and thigh injuries made 13.8% of injuries
- Head and neck 11.3%
- Hand and fingers 8.7%
- Trunk and spine 7.5%
- Shoulder and arm 4.5%
- Concussion 11.4%
(Anderoli et al 2018)
Management of common injuries.
The most common injury in basketball are ankle sprains. These should be initially managed with Protection, Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation (PRICE) for the first 1-3 days. Outside of this time early weight bearing and mobilisation is essential. A player should begin walking and placing weight on the affected ankle as soon as pain permits.
A physiotherapy assessment is crucial to determine the extent of the sprain and to rule out the possibility of a ruptured ligament of fracture. Mild sprains will recovery relatively quickly but 30% of ankle sprains result in long term instability. This is often due to poor initial management and poor management with return to sport such as players returning to competitive play too quickly or without any regular physiotherapy treatment or advice.
Aspetar hospital of sports medicine Doha recommends an extensive 10-12 week strengthening and stability programme is recommended for athletes with instability following an ankle sprain (Karlson & Samulesson 2019). This is important to reduce the probability of recurrent ankle sprains which will ultimately lead to longer time out of competition and increase the risk of developing chronic ankle instability which may require surgical intervention to allow return to competitive basketball.
Taping should be applied with early return to training and competitive play and gradually weaned off and strength and stability are recovered. A similar approach should also be applied to knee sprains and injuries.
Other more serious knee injuries can include tearing or rupturing of a major ligament or tearing of the cartilage discs known as the menisci of your knee. These injuries involve comprehensive management and rehab that your physiotherapist will need to guide you with. Returning to play too soon from these injuries or without adequate planning or management can significantly increase the likelihood of another more serious injury. Injuries of this nature can result in up to a full year of recovery time before returning to competitive play so correct management is invaluable.
Tendinopathies
A tendinopathy is when a tendon of muscle is subjected to repetitive excessive stress and begins to weaken and breakdown.
The most common tendons that are affected in basketball players are the patellar tendon in the knee and the achilles tendon.
Players will typically notice pain with warming up that eases during games or training but then is worse an hour or two after exercising. Pain symptoms are also increased in the morning particularly after training or a game the day previously.
Early identification and physiotherapy management is essential as tendinopathies if ignored can last for up to a year or longer and significantly increase the risk of a tendon rupture. Players often ignore these symptoms and continue playing as they notice they feel better after warming up.
Concussion
Concussion can occur when there has been a trauma to the head or body that causes a impact or stress on the brain. A player with suspected concussion should be removed from play immediately and assessed by a physiotherapist or doctor before being cleared to return to play. If a concussion is diagnosed the players should be given an initial rest period of 24-48 hours and then proceed with a gradual return to play programme as outlined by the Concussion in Sports Group guidelines. This should only be implemented by your physiotherapist or team doctor. It is crucial that players do not rush or skip steps in these guidelines in order to return to competitive play faster.
A player with suspected or diagnoses concussion shoulder under no circumstances return to the court for the remainder of the game the concussion was sustained in or to a competitive game until they have been cleared to do so by their team physio or doctor. This can have catastrophic consequences if ignored as this significantly increases the players risk of secondary impact syndrome with can result in long term brain injury or in extreme cases death.
Andreoli CV, Chiaramonti BC, Buriel E, Pochini AC, Ejnisman B, Cohen M. Epidemiology of sports injuries in basketball: integrative systematic review. BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med. 2018;4(1):e000468. Published 2018 Dec 27. doi:10.1136/bmjsem-2018-000468.
Fletcher EN, McKenzie LB, Comstock RD. Epidemiologic comparison of injured high school basketball athletes reporting to emergency departments and the athletic training setting. J Athl Train. 2014;49(3):381–388. doi:10.4085/1062-6050-49.3.09.
Karlson J & Samulleson K. Ligament injuries of the ankle joint. Aspetar Sports Medicine Journal. March 2019 Volume 8.