What is a Sports Injury?
Sports injuries to the hip are common among athletes and active individuals, often resulting from overuse, sudden impact, or repetitive movements. These injuries can affect the muscles, tendons, ligaments, or bones in the hip joint, leading to pain, stiffness, and reduced range of motion. Common hip sports injuries include strains, labral tears, hip flexor injuries, and fractures, which can significantly impair performance and daily function. Early diagnosis and appropriate treatment are crucial to prevent long-term complications and ensure a full recovery.
Key Procedures
Key Specialists
Professor Adrian Wilson
Dr. Kristian Kley
Professor Adrian Wilson
Dr. Kristian KleyTypes
- Hip Flexor Strain: Caused by overuse, acute trauma, or sudden movements like kicking, sprinting, or changing direction. It’s common in sports that involve a lot of running or jumping, such as soccer, track and field, and martial arts. The injury involves the muscles in the front of the hip, particularly the iliopsoas muscle group.
- Hip Labral Tear: Resulting from repetitive hip motions, trauma, or degenerative conditions, it often occurs in athletes involved in sports like hockey, soccer, and ballet, where the hip undergoes frequent rotation or pivoting. It is a tear in the labrum, the cartilage that lines the hip socket, providing stability to the joint.
- Hip Bursitis: Overuse or repetitive stress on the hip joint, direct trauma, or prolonged pressure on the hip which is common in runners, cyclists, and athletes who engage in repetitive hip movements. This results in inflammation of the bursa, a fluid-filled sac that reduces friction between tissues, particularly the trochanteric bursa on the outer side of the hip.
- Hip Pointer: Direct impact or blow to the iliac crest (the top of the hip bone), often seen in contact sports like football, hockey, or rugby resulting in a contusion (bruise) to the iliac crest, causing pain and muscle spasm.
- Snapping Hip Syndrome: This is an overuse injury, where tendons or muscles move over bony structures in the hip, causing a snapping sensation. It’s common in athletes like dancers, gymnasts, and runners who frequently perform repetitive hip movements. It typically involves the iliotibial band (IT band), iliopsoas tendon, or the rectus femoris tendon.
- Femoroacetabular Impingement (FAI): Abnormal contact between the hip bone and socket during movement, often due to congenital bone deformities or repetitive hip motions in sports like soccer, hockey, or weightlifting which can lead to cartilage damage and labral tears if not addressed.