Football Injuries

Health means both physical and mental: these are two sides of the same coin, with one more than often affecting the other. Severe and recurrent injuries in football players are considered to be major physical and psychosocial stressors. In common with elite athletes from other sports, severe or recurrent injuries may predispose them to mental health problems in the short and long-term and to adverse psychological effects such as lower self-esteem and adverse health behaviour. Recently, other sources of mental stressors have been reported in football, especially organizational pressure related to sporting and educational success, and public and interest in the advancement players, on and off the field. After ending football, public interest in the players generally stops, which may be an additional psychosocial stressor. As with physical injuries, mental health problems may affect athletic performance and limit, or even preclude, training and competition; until successfully managed and treated.

The seriousness factor of injuries in football is on a regular basis. Football is one of the most popular sports played by young athletes, and it leads all other sports in the number of injuries sustained.
In 2007, more than 920,000 athletes under the age of 18 were treated in emergency rooms, doctors' offices, and clinics for football-related injuries, according to page 2 of the U.S.
Consumer Product Safety Commission. The mental health of football players after the injuries they receive is completely life changing and a lot of times they do not stay the same person they once were depending on the seriousness of the injury they received. More than 450,000 students competed in college sports in 2011 to 2012, no hard data are being collected on how many athletes are coping with psychological concerns according to Jim Trotter on page one of ESPN
article.

Injuries, while hopefully infrequent, are often an unavoidable part of sport participation. While most injuries can be managed with little to no disruption in participation of sports and other daily activities , some impose a substantial physical and mental burden. For some student-athletes, the psychological response to injury can trigger or unmask serious mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and many others. According to Jake New from the NCAA. Players work hard in the gym when they train to put themselves in a position where they decrease the risk of injuries.

Whether it be through stretching, exercise techniques, or nutrition, all athletes try and minimize the chances of suffering an injury.But no matter how hard you train, an injury can happen at any time and often without warning. Perhaps you take too quick a cut around a defender, or don’t see that linebacker coming at your back, or slip while charging at a fly ball—your season or your career could end in a snap. Men's Fitness

How student-athletes respond to injury may differ, and there is no predictable sequence or reaction. The response to injury extends from the time immediately after injury through to the post-injury phase and then rehabilitation and ultimately with return to activity. For most injuries, the student-athlete is able to return to preinjury levels of activity. In more serious cases, however, a student-athlete’s playing career may be at stake, and the health care provider should be prepared to address these issues. The team physician is ultimately responsible for the return-to-play decision, and addressing psychological issues is a significant component of this decision. As high school football player Noah Sieden said when asked if the thought crosses his mind about the fact that there is a possibility he could get seriously injured and his life could change, and if that thought held him back. And his response was truly breathtaking, “ Every Time you step on that field you do not think about the fact that there is a possibility you might not walk off you go out on that field because you love it and you do it for yourself and your brothers it is just a subconscious acceptance.”

It’s important for athletic trainers and team physicians, as well as student-athletes, coaches and administrators, to understand that emotional reactions to injury are normal. However, problematic reactions are those that either do not resolve or worsen over time, or where the severity of symptoms seem excessive. For decades, depression for example was only discussed in the shadows. Speaking about it publicly was viewed as a sign of weakness. But today, a light is being cast on it by all players, their families, the NFL, NCAA, and even high school teams because of life-threatening consequences -- a point that has been magnified with recent revelations linking depression with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is the degenerative brain condition caused by repeated blows to the head.