Soccer: The Implication of Injuries to Children

Three million children play soccer each year. With World Cup events in recent months, there is a new rejuvenated excitement associated with soccer for children. For those seeking an energetic, competitive sport, requiring endurance and providing optimal work outs for the cardiovascular system, soccer is a perfect choice in sporting activities, especially for children. Offered as both and indoor and outdoor sport, soccer is exciting and exhilirating but also dangerous when proper play and stretching techniques are not followed. Protecting a child from the injuries associated with soccer will allow for a more pleasant experience soccer experience.

Like adults, child suffer a common soccer injury involving the knees. Specifically, the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), in a child soccer player, may sustain signficant strain through the various leg maneuveurs required for completing a soccer drill. Working within the knee to provide stability, the ACL can be partially or totally torn leading to immediate and sudden pain, many months of rehabilitation and, often, surgery to correct the repair. For children, learning to prevent ACL injuries is a lesson that should be taught in the early years of soccer participation.

Second to ACL injuries, many child soccer players develop ankle disorders also attributed to the lower extremity manuveurs in controlling soccer ball manipulations. Ankle disorders, in child soccer players, often become chronic in nature and progressively worsen with soccer play over several months and years. T o avoid ankle injuries in child soccer players, appropriate technique in strengthen lower leg muscles and foot muscles is highly recommended in both the soccer setting as well as in a fitness facility or home setting. In fact, with proper stretching techniques, many child soccer players will avoid the most common strain involving the tibialis. In this type of injury, the child soccer player may complain of ankle pain but, instead, learn the pain is associated with the muscles on the backside of the leg, connecting the tibia and the fibula together. Avoiding this type of injury, at an early age, will lead the child into many years of soccer activity.

In addition to general stretching techniques, to prevent ankle and knee injuries in child soccer players, parents should also encourage the child to wear protective equipment including mouthguards, which will reduce the number of injuries sustained. Additionally, what is not commonly known is that many child soccer injuries are comparable to that of running injuries as the same level of fitness and endurance is required in children. In other words, injuries which are sustained in a running exercise can often be damaging to the body to the same degree as those in soccer. For injured child soccer athletes, this may be disconcerting as the potential for any type of simple running exercise will be inhibited with a soccer injury thus leading to an inability to perform physical activity both at home, on the soccer field as well as at school.

As parents, providing the appropriate guidance and supervision to young soccer players will lead to many years of fun and enjoyment in the athletic programs. With soccer, utilizing proper stretching techniques, in addition to appropriate protection, will ensure the child soccer play remains active with the soccer program while also continuing to pursue other physical activities at home and at school. For more information regarding soccer injuries in children, visit www. footy4kids.co.uk.