ABSTRACT
In Chapter 8, we explored the health benefits and potential hazards of engaging in regular physical activity. Continuing this theme, this chapter examines another drawback associated with regular engagement in sport and exercise – namely, physical injury. Unfortunately, people who take part in regular competitive physical activity inevitably run the risk of sustaining injury (see Figure 9.1). This point is well illustrated both by quotations from leading athletes in a variety of different sports and by some remarkable facts about sporting injuries. Andre Agassi, the former world number 1 tennis player, described in his autobiography the constant struggle that he faces in coping with the chronic injuries he experienced throughout his career: “I’ve been negotiating with my body, asking it to come out of retirement for a few hours here, a few hours there. Much of this negotiation revolves around a cortisone shot that temporarily dulls the pain” (Agassi, 2009, p. 4). Steffi Graf, also a former world number 1 tennis player, revealed the emotional impact of enforced absence from the game due to injury: “I couldn’t do anything. No work-outs, nothing, I was angry, moody, frustrated” (cited in Miller, 1997, p. 124). Turning to the facts about sports injuries, Tony McCoy, the jump jockey who won the 2010 Grand National and who is the only rider to have won over 3,000 races, has suffered an extraordinary range of problems including broken ankles, broken arms, a broken leg and a fractured back (BBC Sport, 2010). Lewis Moody, a former captain of the
Figure 9.1 Injury is almost inevitable in sport Source: Courtesy of Inpho photography
E X P L O R I N G H E A L T H , E X E R C I S E A N D I N J U R Y
England rugby team, has had three shoulder reconstruction operations, hip surgery, repair of a ruptured Achilles tendon, and a broken ankle so far in his career (Media Planet, 2010). These latter injuries are not really surprising, however, given the fact that modern professional rugby players are fitter, stronger and faster than their counterparts from the amateur era. Commenting on the damage caused by collisions between highly conditioned athletes in international rugby, Dr James Robson, the chief medical officer to the Great Britain and Ireland Lions teams, remarked that “if people on one side are fitter and more powerful than ever before, and they meet people on the other side who have developed along similar lines, the impacts are necessarily greater” (cited in Hewett, 2004, p. 54).
