Spine Injuries, Conditions & Football
Category: Spinal Cord Injury, Spine Pain | Author: Stefano Sinicropi
Football is a great sport for kids and professional athletes alike. But like any heavy contact sport, the risk of injury is high. As part of our continuing blog series on spine conditions and sports, in this post we are going to focus on spine conditions and injuries that can result from playing football, and how to fully recover and get back on the field after such an injury.
Common Football Injuries to the Spine
Football is a very physical sport. Even with all the protective padding, football players can sustain a multitude of injuries during the course of a game, or in practice. Here are a few of the more common back and spine injuries that can impact football players:
- Bulging Discs & Pinched Nerves. When spinal discs bulge out of place, they can press up against the nerves of the spine. When nerves are impacted, a patient can experience immense pain, numbness, and even paralysis in the worst cases.
- Bone Spurs. These bony growths can develop after an injury and cause pain when the patient moves.
These injuries can develop over time with repetitive stress, or they can result from a single acute injury (for example – a particularly hard tackle).
Treatment Options for Football Spine Injuries
Spine injuries can do a lot of damage, and players may feel like they will never play again. Thankfully, there are several treatment options available for football players who sustain spine injuries or suffer from spinal conditions. Players can make full recoveries and get back to playing at peak levels – take a look at our previous blog covering Peyton Manning’s history of spine conditions and treatments.
Specific treatments will, of course, depend on the particular condition or injury sustained. Usually, spine conditions are treated conservatively at first with physical therapy, pain medications, and steroid injections. Minimally invasive surgery is considered after these treatments fail to adequately relive pain in a patient.
Take a peek at our previous blogs on spine injuries and golf, hockey, and basketball.
