Stumble in Sports: Common Injuries in Basketball

Players race down the court, and in their haste, many a player has received a sprained ankle or a broken bone. Many sports are brutal in ways of injury, and basketball is no exception. Players face many common and smaller injuries all the time but the most common injury on the court is an ankle sprain.

“I’ve sprained my ankle a lot in basketball,” freshman Addie Howard said. “In basketball we are constantly doing moves that require good ankle strength and support, which I don’t have so now I wear ankle braces.”

Ankle sprains have varying levels of severity. A grade one ankle sprain is smaller and it has some swelling and pain. Usually, it is recovered in a couple of days, two weeks at most. So how do players get these injuries and does it happen more in practices or during a game?

“It’s pretty much equal,” Howard said. “I’ve only actually sprained it by jumping and landing on it wrong, like getting a rebound in basketball.”

Ankle sprains are usually treated with ankle braces, ice, and anti-inflammatory medicine. It’s best to avoid putting weight on the injured area so crutches might be needed.

“One time it took two weeks to heal, and another time it took about a month,” Howard said. “All the times I’ve sprained my ankle, I’ve had to use crutches, which sucks in school.”

It can be very easy to land wrong when all focus is on the ball. A grade two ankle sprain is slightly more severe and generally, players go around nineteen days for recovery. It is best not to play while having an ankle sprain, if you do, the risk of making your ankle sprain worse is higher and the injury could develop into chronic ankle instability.

Grade three ankle sprain is even more severe and the ligament is entirely torn. There is severe swelling, you can’t use your ankle due to it being too unstable, and movement causes immense pain.

There are other common basketball injuries, such as ACL tears, calf sprains, jammed fingers, Osgood-Schlatter disease, patellar tendinitis, and stress fractures. To avoid injury, it’s best to warm up before playing a sport and remember to stay safe while still having fun playing the sports you love.