Chapter 9
Helping athletes to cope with injury: from
theory to practice
It’s the power of the mind and being positive. A lot of that had to do with my wife, my
family and friends. (Jonah Lomu, New Zealand rugby international player, after he had
overcome a chronic kidney illness in 1997, cited in Hodge and McKenzie, 1999, p. 213)
Returning from a major injury is an immense test of a player’s physical and mental
strength. (Alan Hansen, former Liverpool and Scotland player, 1998, p. 76)
When I injured my shoulder, I couldn’t do anything. No work-outs, nothing, I was
angry, moody, frustrated. (Steffi Graf, former Wimbledon tennis champion, cited in
B.Miller, 1997, p. 124)
A bleak period in my professional life had changed me considerably even if I hadn’t
been fully aware of what was happening or what it meant. Time spent alone helped me
figure myself out. (Roy Keane, captain of Manchester United, 2002, p. 181, on the
experience of being injured)
Introduction
In Chapter 8, we explored the health benefits and potential hazards of engaging in
regular physical activity. Continuing this theme, the present chapter examines another
drawback associated with sport and exercise—namely, injury. Unfortunately, the risk of
injury is an inevitable consequence of regular involvement in any form of physical
activity (see Figure 9.1).
Not surprisingly, sports injuries can be represented on a continuum ranging from
minor (e.g., twisting a finger while attempting to catch a ball) to severe (e.g., suffering
brain damage in a boxing match—as happened to Michael Watson who was in a coma for
forty days after he had been injured in his world super-middle weight title fight against
Chris Eubank in 1991). Regardless of their location on this continuum, however, sports
injuries constitute a significant volume of acute admissions to hospitals. For example, in
1994 there were about 24 million sports injuries reported in Britain (Hemmings and
Povey, 2002). Similarly, in 1999 about 750,000 people reported to the casualty wards of
British hospitals seeking treatment for injuries which they had received while playing
sports or engaging in exercise (Hoey, 2002). Indeed, the level of injury risk for
professional sports performers is significantly higher than for other occupational groups.
To illustrate this disparity, Drawer and Fuller (2002) reported that whereas employees in
the UK suffer, on average, 0.36 reportable injuries per 100,000 working hours,
professional footballers suffer an average of 710 reportable injuries per 100,000 hours of
training and competition. Further evidence on the prevalence of this problem springs
from the fact that sports injuries comprise approximately one third of all injuries reported
to medical agencies in the UK (Uitenbroek, 1996). Not all of these ailments reflect