Blog 1: Everything Soccer
Part 1: The Most Common Soccer Injuries: And What Is Really Behind Them
Welcome to Everything Soccer! A five-part series by me, Dr. Keirstyn, owner of Endurance Therapeutics. This series is built for soccer players who want to understand their bodies, stay healthy through a long season, and keep playing the game they love. Whether you are a youth athlete mid-season, a competitive adult club player, or a masters footballer chasing the beautiful game into your 50s, this series is for you.
We are starting where it matters most: the injuries. Understanding what breaks down in soccer players, and more importantly why, is the foundation for everything that follows in this series.
1. Hamstring Strains: Soccer's Most Serious Soft Tissue Injury
Hamstring strains are the most common muscle injury in professional and amateur soccer globally. Research from the UEFA Elite Club Injury Study found that hamstring injuries account for roughly 12% of all injuries across a season, with a recurrence rate of around 30% in athletes who return without adequate rehabilitation.
Why they happen in soccer specifically:
High-speed running: at sprint speeds the hamstring has to eccentrically decelerate the extending knee in late swing phase before footstrike. This is where most hamstring strains occur.
The kicking motion: at ball contact the hamstring of the kicking leg is stretched under significant force as the quad contracts explosively. Hip flexion and knee extension under high load is a reliable injury mechanism.
Fatigue: hamstring injury rates in soccer peak in the final 15 minutes of each half. Fatigue reduces eccentric force production capacity, which means the muscle cannot control the forces it is being asked to handle.
Inadequate eccentric strength: the most modifiable risk factor. Athletes who train the hamstrings eccentrically have significantly lower hamstring injury rates. Nordic hamstring curls are the gold standard intervention.
Warning signs: sudden sharp pain in the back of the thigh during sprinting or kicking, pain with resisted knee flexion, or tightness that worsens with consecutive training days.
2. Groin and Adductor Strains; The Hip Injury Behind Most Inner Thigh Pain
Groin injuries are the second most common soft tissue injury in soccer. The adductor muscle group is under repeated eccentric load during the push-off and recovery phase of every stride, and particularly during the kicking motion where the adductors work to decelerate the swinging leg.
What makes soccer-specific groin injuries tricky is that they rarely announce themselves dramatically. They build gradually — a tightness after training that takes longer and longer to resolve, until one session it does not resolve at all.
Adductor longus strain; the most commonly injured of the adductor group. Pain at the inner thigh and groin attachment that is worst with resisted adduction and kicking movements.
Athletic pubalgia; chronic groin and lower abdominal pain that develops from repeated load on the pubic attachments of the adductors and abdominal muscles. More common in adult players with high training volumes.
Hip flexor involvement: the hip flexors and adductors share attachment points close to the pubic bone. Groin injuries in soccer frequently involve multiple structures and are often undertreated because of that complexity.
If any of this sounds familiar, we have a full three-part groin and adductor series on the blog that goes into significantly more depth — including exactly why they keep coming back.
3. Ankle Sprains: The Most Common Acute Injury in Soccer
Ankle sprains account for more lost training and match time in soccer than almost any other single injury. They occur most commonly during landing from a jump, being stepped on during a challenge, or planting the foot during a rapid change of direction on uneven ground.
The lateral ankle sprain — rolling the ankle outward — is by far the most common presentation. What most players do not realize is that an inadequately rehabilitated ankle sprain leaves behind proprioceptive deficits and mechanical instability that dramatically increase the risk of the next one. Chronic ankle instability is common in soccer players who have sprained the same ankle repeatedly.
Warning signs worth taking seriously:
Swelling and bruising extending beyond the ankle joint itself
Pain that does not significantly improve within 48 to 72 hours
A feeling of the ankle giving way during training even without a specific incident
Recurrent sprains on the same side — this is chronic instability, not bad luck
4. Knee Injuries: From Overuse to ACL
Soccer places significant demand on the knee from multiple directions. The overuse presentations I see most:
Patellofemoral pain (runner's knee): pain around the kneecap with running, stair climbing, and sustained loading. In soccer players this is almost always connected to weak hip stabilizers and quad dominance patterns. The knee is where it hurts, the hip is usually why.
Patellar tendinopathy: pain at the tendon just below the kneecap, worst with jumping and landing. More common in players doing high volumes of sprint and jump work, particularly on artificial turf.
Osgood-Schlatter disease: pain and swelling at the tibial tuberosity just below the knee. Extremely common in growing youth athletes between 10 and 15, particularly those in high training loads. Not dangerous but needs proper management.
ACL injuries deserve specific mention. Soccer is one of the highest ACL injury-rate sports, with female players at two to eight times higher risk than male players. Proper landing mechanics, hip strength, and neuromuscular control training are among the most evidence-supported preventive interventions available.
5. Shin Pain: The Youth Player's Most Common Complaint
Medial tibial stress syndrome is one of the most common complaints I see in youth soccer players, particularly at the start of a new season when training volume increases rapidly. The combination of growth, load spikes, hard surfaces, and inadequate footwear support creates the perfect environment for tibial stress.
In youth athletes it is worth investigating whether what appears to be shin splints might be a tibial stress reaction or early stress fracture, particularly in players who report pain at rest or pain that does not warm up with activity. These warrant imaging and a more conservative approach.
Up Next: Why Soccer Breaks Bodies
Now that you know what the injuries are, Part 2 of Everything Soccer explains exactly why soccer creates such a unique injury environment; the physical demands of the sport, how fatigue drives breakdown, and why youth players are at particular risk. Understanding the why is what makes the rest of this series useful. See you there.
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If you recognize any of these injury patterns in yourself or your athlete, do not wait for them to become a bigger problem. I work with soccer players at every level at Endurance Therapeutics — from youth athletes managing growth-related pain to adult players dealing with recurring soft tissue injuries. Reach out to book an assessment.
📍 Endurance Therapeutics | Oakville, Ontario
📞 905-288-7161