WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — High school football and soccer season is in full swing, but with all the touchdowns and tackles comes the risk of concussions and more.
"Both of those sports have high incidents of knee injuries, especially. It's a lot of cutting and pivoting explosive maneuver, stopping, accelerating, decelerating," said Dr. John Kunkel, Sports Medicine Physician at UPMC Williamsport.
Dr. John Kunkel is a sports medicine physician at UPMC Williamsport.
He tells me that MCL and ACL injuries, as well as meniscus tears, are common for athletes who play football or soccer, "Unfortunately, there's no way to avoid injuries when you're an athlete, cause as an athlete we're always asking a little bit more of our bodies. You know, what's the next level we can get to? How much faster can we get? How much stronger we can get? And by doing that, you're always kind of walking that line of injury. So the best thing to do is look at it rather than say hey, how are we going to avoid injury? How can we reduce our injury risk?"
Dr. Kunkel adds that the best way to reduce your injury risk is to be prepared, "If you make sure your body is ready, and that starts with really an off-season strength and conditioning workout where you are keeping your body in shape, you're getting your body prepared for some of the maneuvers that you're going to have to do to get to two a days in the fall and that's the way we can really reduce the injury risk of those sports."
And Dr. Kunkel says sometimes, when an athlete gets hurt or injured, they'll avoid getting checked out for fear of being told they can't return to the field.
But, he adds the best thing to do in that situation is to find a sports medicine physician who understands both medicine and sports, "We gotta figure out what's the risk of you going back to your sport, and that's understanding what the demands of your sport are and even within that understanding the demands of the position within your sport."
And finding a sports medicine physician who's on your team is the key to reducing your risk of injury all season long.
"Play hard, have fun, and when you do get injured, come see us, and we'll help you get back safely," said Dr. Kunkel.