"Don't just dive in", says Essex surgeon, as 25% of adults predicted to take up new sport after Olympics
Dr Saket Tibrewal from Broomfield Surgery, Chelmsford, says 'strength and conditioning' is key to prevent injury
A knee surgeon in Essex is advising people to 'not dive in' as nearly a quarter (24%) of people are predicted to take up a new sport after the Olympics.
This goes for all major sporting events. Take the Lionesses... they won the European Championships in 2022, and now, it's estimated over 100,000 more girls are playing football than 5 years ago.
However, with this increase in numbers, comes more injuries.
New research from Bupa states that one in 20 people (2.8million UK adults) have been injured playing sport and given up altogether.
Of those 2.8 million, nearly 20% say their fear of re-injury stops them trying new sports.
Dr Saket Tibrewal is a Trauma and Orthopaedic surgeon at Broomfield Surgery, Chelmsford. He also provides his specialist services throughout Essex at the Spire, Nuffield and Ramsey private hospitals.
"A lot of children, adolescents in Essex, are aspiring to a career in professional sport. However with this, the number of injuries in those cohorts are increasing", says Dr Tibrewal.
"We have seen an explosion in ACL injuries over the last couple of years, particularly in girls.
Not only can sport injuries be taxing on our physical health, but also our mental health.
According to Bupa, one in five of those who have experienced injury said that it has negatively impacted their work life and their mental health.
"These injuries can be quite devastating on the psychological level for a lot of people because we know how important sport is.
"We saw Derek Redmond and he spoke about how devastating it was to get that hamstring injury in the Olympic semi finals. For a lot of athletes like him, this has long term implications.
In the Paris Olympics, British Jake Wightman had to pull out of the 800m race because of a hamstring injury. British sprinter, Zharnel Hughes, withdrew from Monday night’s 200m heats due to a hamstring issue. Ireland's Ciara Magheean had to pull out of the women's 1500m due to an achilles injury.
Dr Tibrewal advises how to best avoid injury when picking up a new sport:
"Don't just dive into it. Start slowly and increase over time. That will help to prevent injury because your body can adapt to what's required of it.
"It's always important t focus on proper technique and form. If you can, it's worth getting some coaching. Just a few sessions when you're first starting out.
"Strength and conditioning is so important and something so many people don't do."
"There's lots of YouTube tutorials and blog posts that can help you. If you can afford it, a few coaching sessions is the best thing to teach you how to do these exercises.
"I get a lot of patients coming to me who run with pain at the front of their knee because they haven't engaged in strength and conditioning. As they run, they overload different parts of their knee and that can be avoided by getting the right kind of strength and training in place.
"Warm up properly. Make sure you stretch. As we get older, we're less supple and more likely to get strains and injuries.
Lastly, he says to 'be sensible. Hydrate yourself, and eat well.'