Physiotherapy & Sports Injury Clinic, Islington, London

Sports Injuries

We are experienced in treating all manner of sports injuries, from the elite professional athlete, to the weekend warrior, to the very occasional gym attendee.

Common sports injuries we treat

Many of our physiotherapists have specific experience in certain sports and disciplines and types of sports injuries. In the first instance, it can be worthwhile to look through the team profile pages to see if there is a specific therapist that best matches your needs or preferences.

Alternatively, give us a call and we can go through any specific requirements that you may have and advise you appropriately.

If you need further investigations or onward referral, we have an extensive team of professional colleagues with sports-specific experience such as Sports Physicians, Orthopaedic Consultants and Podiatrists that we can recommend and refer you on to.

We are also very happy to liaise with personal trainers, coaches and other therapists where appropriate to ensure your care and programme are as coordinated as possible.

Sports Injuries Case Studies (see all Case Studies)

Potential clients and patients often ask us about the types of conditions that we treat and can help with. We have therefore put together some case studies from our files that outline some of the cases that we have been able to help with and offer a flavour of what we do in our clinic.

24 year old professional super-heavy weight boxer with shoulder pain

Symptoms & Assessment

  • Unable to effectively throw a punch
  • Attended on Thursday - needed to fight the following Saturday
  • Examination showed decreased internal rotation of the shoulder to 0
  • Diagnosis GIRD (glenohumeral internal rotation deficiency)

Treatment

  • Treatment addressed the biomechanics of his thoracic and shoulder rotation and elbow and wrist movement.
  • Treatment consisted of mobilisation of his spine and shoulder, muscle energy techniques to repower his shoulder, soft tissue work, neuromobilisation, dry needling of the back of his shoulder and scapula.
  • After an extended session on Thursday he regained 45 degree of rotation (60 on L), he was already pain free
  • After another long session on Friday he regained full flexibility of his shoulder, elbow and wrist.

Outcome

He was completely pain free during the fight on Saturday and went on to win.

His training programme was adapted after the fight to address the strength defects and muscle imbalance that had contributed to the problem.

28 year old lady amateur power lifter with hip pain

Symptoms & Assessment

Severe pain and unable to squat fully with weight above 20 kg

Examination showed decreased hip flexion and rotation, very weak gluteal muscles, and poor kinetic control. She was also extremely hypermobile (very flexible). It can take longer to regain power in comparison to normal flexibility.

Treatment & Outcome

Treatment worked on the flexibility of her hip with joint mobilisations and stretches, and a progressive strengthening program of loading in squat position with narrow shallow squats-progressing to sumo wide squats.

The physiotherapist also worked closely with the client's powerlifting trainer with regular reviews and discussions of progression and issues.

The progressive loading program was continued for 6 months until the client was able to beat her personal best in full squat position.

63 year old primary school teacher with foot pain

Symptoms & assessment

  • 63 year old teacher - on her feet a lot
  • Regular gym and running (up to 5 kms)
  • 4 month history of right forefoot pain and swelling
  • Keen to have check-up, diagnosis and advice on exercises to fix it
  • Assessment showed moderate swelling in the web space between the 1st and 2nd toes, marked stiffness of the right 1st toe and also right hip into internal rotation and stiffness of the mid-spine. Slight swelling of both knees were also noticed even though client had no knee symptoms.
  • Diagnosis: biomechanical contribution to overloading onto big toe -possible early degenerative changes at big toe and also knees (family history).

Treatment

  • Aimed at improving the mobility of the mid-spine, hip and big toe along with a strengthening programme for the muscles around the hip. Strengthening exercises were also shown for the knees to lessen loading on the joints
  • Client worked on the home exercise programme and attended for a few sessions of joint mobilisation and soft tissue release for the toe.

Outcome

Swelling resolved in knees and toe. Residual but improving toe stiffness. Back to normal exercise routine.

51 year old professional violinist musician with shoulder and neck pain

Symptoms & Assessment

  • Pain in right shoulder following doing lunges in the gym with a 2kg weight
  • Now affecting playing her instrument, interrupting her sleep and getting worse.
  • Unable to do her usual exercise which was swimming due to the pain.
  • On examination, pain with shoulder movements above shoulder level and also with neck movements on palpation. Stiffness of the neck and upper spine, tenderness of the rotator cuff muscles of the shoulder.

Diagnosis: Rotator cuff strain of the shoulder aggravating early degenerative changes in the neck.

Treatment

Worked on soft tissue work around the shoulder, spinal joint mobilisations and a home programme of stretches and strengthening exercises.

Outcome

Pain started to improve following the 2nd treatment session and by treatment no. 5 the main problem was neck stiffness after playing.

Taping techniques to improve postural awareness while playing were helpful in improving the spinal stiffness and patient was given a revised gym programme to build up her shoulder and core strength.

No further problems with the shoulder.

33 year old, right handed cyclist seen following shoulder surgery

Symptoms & Assessment

  • cycling injury causing collar bone joint disruption, surgically repaired.
  • advice given by surgeon to mobilise below shoulder level and avoid lifting and loading for 6 weeks.
  • seen at 7 weeks for rehabilitation and to 'top up' his NHS physiotherapy.
  • treatment aims were to restore full mobility and get him back to full function
  • on examination, main movement restriction was overhead and crossing the arm across the body with a tendency to overuse the chest muscles.

Treatment

Mainly exercise programme to regain full movement and early strengthening within the limits of pain.

Lots of work on improving the shoulder girdle strength and stability to counteract the dominant chest muscles.

Outcome

Attended for 5 sessions in total until back to full function and normal exercise.

38 year old IT worker with calf and lower back pain

Symptoms & Assessment

  • Physically active, practices different sports regularly, daily work out regime, takes part in marathons and cycles long distances
  • Experiences muscular pain and tension in particular after intense bursts of physical activity

Treatment

He was treated with deep tissue massage, mobilisations to his lower back and pressure points to gluteal muscles. He was also advised to buy a foam roller to aid release of tension in in his gastrocnemius (calf) muscles.

Outcome

After two sessions he was much better and able to undertake his regular work-out regime without symptoms.

29 year-old runner with knee pain

Symptoms & Assessment

A keen runner who was preparing for the marathon attended the clinic complaining of knee pain following increasing his running distance.

On examination, the source of the pain was found to be under the kneecap. Tightness of the thigh muscles and poor leg control were also identified as possible contributing factors.

Treatment and Outcome

During the appointment, the client was treated with soft tissue release and stretches. He was given home exercises to help improve his leg control while running. He was also advised on how much running load he could undertake on the following days and how he could optimise his training in preparation for the event.

Taking everything on board, he successfully completed the marathon he was scheduled for and was planning to continue his stretches and home exercises to prevent recurrence.

"I wanted to thank you for all your help and support when I was suffering with my frozen shoulder. I have been swimming backstroke fully and enjoying a pain-free shoulder. I am absolutely sure that without your intervention I would not be at this stage. You were also supportive and understanding which helped me enormously."

JW

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