As England steam rollered Sri Lanka recently and have now started on Pakistan I felt it was a good time to have a look into cricketers and the most common injuries they face. (The less said about the football the better really)
Bowling, especially fast bowling is the most common movement to pick up an injury. The most likeliest place to get injured from this movement is the back.
It is likely that the bowler’s injury will be down to overuse, therefore it is important for the coaches during training to monitor the amount of bowling. Its also from pertinent for the captain of the team in matches to regularly switch bowlers to make sure each one is at a much reduced risk of getting an overuse injury.
Previous injury is seen as a very good indictor for current injuries in a fact bowler as it has been shown that once they get an injury it is very likely to reoccur. This is where it is very important for healthcare professionals to look at all predisposing factors for an injury.
The most common example of this is to look at the hips/back. If a player’s back is lordotic, then this will cause the pelvis to tilt forward, this then elongates the hamstrings and puts them on stretch. With the hamstrings being in such a way this exposes the player to an increased risk of a hamstring strain. If a player picks up a hamstring strain and the therapist does not alter any of the above then it is more likely for the player to repeatedly receive hamstring strains as the predisposing factors which put the body at risk of the injury in the first place.
The second most common position for injury is fielding. This is seen to be due to the demands of diving for catches. There has even been an increase in ‘whiplash’ injuries in the C spine (shoulders to head area) from the impact of diving and landing to catch the ball, regaining balance and then quickly throwing the ball back.
The younger cricketer with an age of around 17 years old is the most at risk of being injured. This is thought to be down to the fact their bodies are still growing and their bodies find it harder to keep up with the training and match demands.
Two thirds of injured cricketers in the study were able to return to matches and training session with one week of being out. This is a marked decrease in time as two decades ago it would have been twice as long.
For more information on this and where my points came from please see the below Journals
Clarsen, B., & Bahr, R. (2014). Matching the choice of injury/illness definition to study setting, purpose and design: one size does not fit all!. British journal of sports medicine, 48(7), 510-512.
Stretch, R. A. (2003). Cricket injuries: a longitudinal study of the nature of injuries to South African cricketers. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 37(3), 250-253.