The truth about hamstring injuries and how to avoid them
Live MintWhen the Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin picked up yet another injury last season, the club sent a team of specialists to check the mattress and bed he slept on to figure out why he was getting injured so often. Thus far, hamstring injuries used to be more common among men than among women players. But that is changing at the elite level; incidence of hamstring injuries among both men and women is almost similar now. A Uefa research project, the Women Elite Club Injury Study, found that hamstring injuries are “the most common injury subtype in women’s elite-level football players, constituting 12–16% of all time-loss injuries.” The Premier League season has just returned and already there are two high profile players out with hamstring injuries — Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne and Chelsea’s Reece James. The best way to prevent a hamstring injury, according to Daga, is to do a proper warmup and follow a structured strength and conditioning programme that increases the eccentric strength of the hamstring muscles and improves joint mobility of hips and knees.
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