Common Soccer Injuries and Prevention

Soccer season is underway, and youth athletes are especially susceptible to muscle strains and sprains. Soccer demands sprinting, stopping on a dime, lightning-fast changes of direction, jumping, and striking the ball with power and precision. Those explosive movements can also result in soccer injuries for players at every level. Fortunately, many common sports injuries in soccer can be prevented with smart training, proper conditioning, and adequate recovery. Orthopedic Sports Doctor Connie Oh, MD, shares more about common soccer injuries and prevention tips, including stretching and when to seek care from an orthopedic specialist.

Key Takeaways

• Most soccer injuries result from sudden changes in speed or direction, repetitive stress, collisions, or awkward landings.
• Strength training, proper conditioning, good technique, and adequate recovery can help prevent many soccer injuries.
• Dynamic warm-ups, appropriate footwear, and gradually increasing your training intensity can further reduce your risk of injury.
• Persistent pain, swelling, joint instability, or difficulty bearing weight after a soccer injury should be evaluated by a sports medicine specialist before returning to play.

Why Are Injuries Common in Soccer?

Soccer places unique demands on the body, creating tremendous and constantly changing forces on muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, and joints. As a result, soccer sports injuries commonly occur because of:

• Sudden changes in speed and direction: Explosive acceleration, quick cuts, pivots, and sudden stops place significant stress on the knees, ankles, feet, and lower leg muscles.
• Player contact and falls: Tackles, shoulder challenges, collisions, awkward landings, and stepping on another player's foot can sprain, strain, fracture, or bruise muscles, ligaments, tendons, and bones.
• Overtraining: Frequent practices, matches, tournaments, and year-round play can lead to overuse injuries when muscles, tendons, and bones don't have enough time to recover between sessions.
• Playing conditions and equipment: Uneven fields, wet grass, artificial turf, worn cleats, or footwear that doesn't match the playing surface can all increase the risk of injury.

Soccer Injury Risks for Youth Athletes

Young athletes are still growing, so their developing bones, muscles, and tendons respond differently to the physical demands of soccer than adult tissues. Soccer injuries that might damage an adult's ligament or tendon can affect a developing bone in a child or teen instead.

Concussions are another important concern for young soccer players. They can occur after collisions, falls, or player-to-player contact while contesting a header. Girls' soccer has one of the highest concussion rates among high school sports.

Learn how to recognize, prevent, and respond to concussions in young athletes.

What Are the Most Common Soccer Injuries?

The most common sports injuries from soccer include:

Ankle Sprains

Rolling an ankle while cutting around a defender or landing on another player's foot can stretch or tear the ligaments that stabilize the ankle. Although many ankle sprains heal with conservative treatment, persistent pain or instability should be evaluated to rule out more serious foot and ankle conditions.

Knee and ACL Injuries

Soccer-related knee conditions range from mild sprains to torn cartilage and ligament injuries. An ACL tear, one of the most common knee sports injuries, often occurs during a sudden pivot, awkward landing, or collision, and typically requires months of rehabilitation. Female athletes are significantly more likely than males to tear an ACL in soccer.

Hamstring, Groin, and Calf Strains

A hard sprint or powerful kick can overstretch a hamstring, groin, or calf muscle. Groin strains occur more often in male soccer players than in females.

Shin Splints and Stress Fractures

Repeated impact from running and jumping can cause overuse injuries in the lower leg. Shin splints cause aching pain along the shin, while stress fractures produce pain in one small area that often worsens with continued activity.

Foot and Achilles Tendon Injuries

The feet absorb thousands of impacts during a soccer match. Over time, that can lead to Achilles tendon injuries, plantar fasciitis, turf toe, fractures, or other foot and ankle conditions. These common soccer injuries can make it painful to walk, run, or push off the foot.

Concussions and Head Injuries

Although heading the ball itself rarely causes a concussion, collisions with other players, elbows, heads, or the ground can. Any athlete with symptoms such as headache, dizziness, confusion, or memory problems should be removed from play and evaluated before returning.

Bruises, Fractures, and Upper-Body Injuries

Falls, collisions, and tackles can also cause bruises, broken bones, and injuries to the shoulder, wrist, or fingers. Although most soccer injuries affect the legs and feet, upper-body injuries are not uncommon.

How to Prevent Soccer Injuries

Injury prevention for soccer is every bit as important as improving your performance.

• Warm up with movement, not static stretching. A dynamic warm-up prepares your muscles and joints for sprinting, cutting, and jumping.
• Use neuromuscular training. Practice drills for balance, jumping, landing, and agility to improve coordination and body control and reduce the risk of knee and ankle injuries.
• Build strength year-round. Strong hips, core, and leg muscles help control the knee and ankle during quick changes of direction.
• Increase training gradually. Sudden jumps in playing time or training intensity increase the risk of overuse injuries such as shin splints and stress fractures.
• Wear footwear designed for the playing surface. Cleats matched to the field provide the right balance of traction and stability.
• Don't ignore pain. Soreness that doesn't improve with rest or changes the way you run should be evaluated before it becomes a more serious injury.

When Should a Soccer Injury Be Evaluated?

Not every soccer injury or sports medicine condition requires immediate medical attention, but some should be evaluated as soon as possible.

Seek medical attention if:

• You cannot bear weight on the injured leg or foot.
• A joint feels unstable, gives way, or won't support you.
• Swelling, bruising, or pain is severe or rapidly worsening.
• Pain persists for several days despite rest and home care.
• You heard or felt a “pop” when the injury occurred.
• You have numbness, weakness, or a suspected concussion.

Early evaluation and treatment can often shorten recovery time and help you return to play safely.

Returning to Soccer After an Injury

Returning too soon increases the risk of reinjury and can lead to new injuries as your body compensates for lingering weakness or pain. Before returning to soccer, you should be able to:

• Walk without pain or a limp.
• Regain full strength and range of motion in the injured area.
• Run, jump, cut, and pivot without pain or instability.
• Complete sport-specific drills before returning to full practice or competition.

The board-certified, fellowship-trained sports medicine physicians at Hoag Orthopedic Institute diagnose and treat a wide range of soccer injuries. From injury prevention and sports medicine care to advanced robotic-assisted surgery and rehabilitation, our team provides personalized orthopedic care to help athletes recover safely and return to the sports they love.