Are you a multi-sport high school athlete? Are you a weekend warrior on the running circuit or on the pickup basketball court? Are you an aging veteran of the softball and baseball fields?

If you are, then there’s a good chance that you’ve gotten injured while participating in the sport or sports you love. There are an estimated 3.5 million sports injuries each year an athletes seek all kinds of things for pain relief from the aid of chiropractors to medications.


If you’re an athlete, you know there are a wide variety of sports injuries and symptoms including:

• Back pain
• Muscle Strains
• Shin splints
• Sprained ankles
• Runner’s knee
• Neck Pain
• Concussions

Being an athlete and staying active is a great way to boost your health and overall well-being from a physical and mental standpoint. As much as athletes work to get themselves in peak physical condition, injuries do happen unfortunately. Depending on the injury and the person, the effects of the injury can vary greatly and one of the biggest questions when an injury occurs is when an athlete should go in and see a doctor.

Rather than immediately rushing off to an urgent care or the emergency room, taking time to access the situation will point you toward your next step. Generally speaking , an athlete needs to see a doctor for the following reasons:

• Their injury symptoms aren’t going away after rest and treatment at home
• Injuries that may be a risk to the athlete, their teammates and fellow competitors
• Injuries that affect the way an athlete trains or performs and hasn’t been properly diagnosed or treated

Along with those criteria, you need to figure out which kind of injury you’ve got. There are acute injuries, overuse injuries and medical illnesses and conditions and knowing which one you may have can help a doctor treat you more effectively.

Acute

Acute injuries include bruises, scrapes, cuts, sprains, fractures, pinched nerves and torn cartilage.

Athletes experiencing these types of injuries may experience restrictive pain, swelling, bruising, shooting pains, numbness and locking joints.

If you’re an athlete, you need to see a doctor for an acute injury if you have pain that doesn’t go away, you have an inability to fully move a joint, a leg or an arm, you have a visible deformity in your joints, arms and legs or you have pain that disrupts your everyday activities.

Overuse injuries

Overuse injuries can include tendonitis, stress fractures, shin splints, bursitis, fasciitis and nerve issues.

Athletes will tend to experience symptoms such as popping or grinding in joints, swelling in the affected areas and pain that seems to worsen with more physical activity. These symptoms generally are noticeable after vigorous activity, but they ultimately restrict most activity as they worsen.

Athletes should get to a doctor if pain doesn’t go away with treatments like rest and ice, there is pain or swelling that gets in the way of sports-related activities or they are experiencing localized pain that worsens over time with continued activity.

Medical illnesses and conditions

Medical illnesses and conditions may include injuries such as concussions, fevers, skin infections, cardiac issues, abdominal pain, respiratory issues and heat injuries.

Conditions such as these see a wide variety of symptoms including shortness of breath, chest pain, feeling of lightheadedness, passing out, pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, loss of appetite, fever, headaches and disorientation. Symptoms will vary depending on what condition you have.

Athletes need to get in to see a doctor if they notice any of these illness or conditions and it seems as though they are persisting. In the case of injuries like concussions the symptoms can vary from person to person and even the way a person reacts to a fever or to abdominal pain may not be the same as the next person.

For cuts and scrapes, a trip to an urgent care should do the trick, as it should if you’re experiencing a little bit of back pain, which affects nearly 70% of Americans every day. But for more serious injuries, take time to access what injury you have and then get in to see a doctor.