Most Common Sports Injuries: Causes, Prevention & Treatment

Most sports injuries aren’t bad luck. The same handful show up again and again in athletes and active adults, and they usually have a clear cause: a movement pattern that overloads a joint, a weak link somewhere in the body, an old injury you compensated for, or a return to sport that came too soon.

Below are the most common sports injuries our Doctors of Physical Therapy see, why they happen, who gets them, and what helps you recover and keep them from coming back.

Why Sports Injuries Happen

Every injury has a moment it showed up, but the cause usually started earlier. The most common drivers are:

• Movement patterns that overload tissue, such as a knee that caves in when you land or overstriding when you sprint.
• Weak links in the chain: a stiff ankle, weak hip, or poor trunk control that forces another area to do extra work.
• Training load jumps: too much, too fast, without enough recovery.
• Old injuries that were never fully rehabbed, which is why the same area gets hurt twice.

1. Ankle Sprain

Ankle sprains are one of the most frequent sports injuries. They happen when the ligaments that stabilize the ankle are overstretched or torn, usually from rolling the ankle during a quick change of direction, a bad landing, or even stepping off a curb awkwardly. Sprains are often described as low ankle or high ankle sprains, depending on which ligaments are injured.

Common in: basketball, volleyball, soccer, tennis, pickleball.

Prevention and treatment: Rest and a brace calm a sprain down, but they don’t restore balance, strength, and control. Rehab should rebuild the ankle and also the hip and knee above it. Skipping this step is a big reason sprains turn into chronic ankle instability. Try these ankle stability exercises, or see how we treat foot and ankle pain.

2. Hamstring Strain

Hamstring strains often happen while sprinting, especially when overstriding or when the muscle lacks the length and eccentric strength to control the leg as it swings forward.

Common in: soccer, football, track, and any sport with sprinting.

Prevention and treatment: The best protection is a hamstring with both enough length and enough strength, plus a warm-up that raises blood flow and mobility before fast running. Rehab includes soft tissue work, mobility, and progressive eccentric strengthening, then a gradual return to full-speed running. If yours keeps coming back, read what causes recurring hamstring strains.

3. Groin and Hip Flexor Strain

These strains are common in sports that demand sprinting, kicking, wide stances, and explosive changes of direction. They’re often linked to an imbalance between the hip flexors and the adductors (inner thigh muscles).

Common in: soccer, hockey, running, football.

Prevention and treatment: A proper dynamic warm-up is key. Rehab strengthens both the adductors and hip flexors, restores balance between them, and rebuilds the hip control you need to cut and kick. Learn more about hip pain treatment.

4. ACL Tear

ACL tears are often non-contact knee injuries. They usually happen with a sudden change of direction, a jump landing, or a plant-and-twist movement. Risk factors include the knee caving inward (knee valgus) and muscle imbalances such as weak hamstrings with overpowering quadriceps. ACL injuries are especially common in female athletes.

Common in: soccer, basketball, football, volleyball.

Prevention and treatment: Prevention focuses on landing and cutting mechanics and on strengthening the hips, quads, and hamstrings to protect the knee. A complete tear in an athlete often means surgery followed by a structured rehab program that commonly takes 9 to 12 months. Return to sport should be decided by testing, not the calendar. See our ACL injury and ACL surgery rehab program and our guide to ACL return-to-sport testing.

5. Runner’s Knee (Patellofemoral Pain)

Runner’s knee causes pain around or behind the kneecap. It usually comes from overuse and poor mechanics, when the kneecap doesn’t glide smoothly in its groove.

Common in: running, basketball, dance, cycling.

Prevention and treatment: Dynamic warm-ups, strengthening weak quads and hips, and improving hip and ankle mobility all help the kneecap track smoothly. Mileage and training load also need to be adjusted while you rebuild. Learn more about knee pain treatment.

6. Shin Splints

Shin splints cause pain along the inside of the shin bone. They tend to show up when mileage or jumping volume climbs faster than the lower leg can adapt, and they’re often tied to weak calves and hips or stiff ankles.

Common in: running, track, basketball, and new high-volume training programs.

Prevention and treatment: Build mileage gradually, strengthen the calves, hips, and feet, and address ankle mobility. Pain that is sharp, gets worse with every run, or hurts in one specific spot should be checked rather than run through. See how we treat running injuries and how to prevent running injuries.

7. Tennis Elbow and Golfer’s Elbow

These overuse injuries cause pain on the outside (tennis elbow) or inside (golfer’s elbow) of the elbow. They develop when the forearm tendons are loaded beyond what they can handle, often from repetitive gripping and swinging.

Common in: tennis, pickleball, golf, lifting, and jobs with lots of gripping.

Prevention and treatment: The key is load management: strengthening the forearm, wrist, and shoulder while improving mobility and technique. For stubborn cases, treatment may include dry needling, Active Release Technique, and stretching. With the right plan, recovery often takes about 6 to 8 weeks. Pickleball player? Read what causes pickleball elbow or see our pickleball injury care.

8. Shoulder and Rotator Cuff Injuries

The rotator cuff keeps the shoulder stable while the arm moves fast overhead. Repeated throwing, serving, swimming, or pressing can irritate these tendons, especially when shoulder blade control or thoracic (upper back) mobility is limited.

Common in: baseball, softball, tennis, swimming, volleyball, lifting.

Prevention and treatment: Rehab restores shoulder and upper back mobility, strengthens the rotator cuff and shoulder blade muscles, and rebuilds throwing or overhead work in stages. Learn more about shoulder pain treatment.

Other Common Sports Injuries

We also regularly treat tendon pain such as Achilles and patellar tendon (jumper’s knee) problems, and low back pain from lifting, swinging, or running.

How to Lower Your Risk of a Sports Injury

• Warm up dynamically before practice, games, and hard training.
• Increase mileage, volume, and intensity gradually.
• Strength train year-round, including the hips, trunk, and single-leg work.
• Fix stiff ankles, hips, and upper backs before they push stress elsewhere.
• Don’t return to sport just because the pain is gone. Return when your strength and movement are ready.

For more, read our tips on avoiding overuse injuries.

When to See a Physical Therapist

Get it checked if the injury keeps flaring up when you train, you’ve hurt the same area more than once, you’re avoiding certain movements, or you’ve been “cleared” but don’t feel 100%. Those are signs the cause is still being missed.

Get Back to Your Sport the Right Way

At Back In Motion Physical Therapy & Performance, every visit is one-on-one with a Doctor of Physical Therapy. Using The Gray Method™, we find why you got hurt, fix the cause, and rebuild the strength and confidence you need to get back in the game. Learn more about our sports physical therapy Fort Myers services.

Start with our Fixing the Cause & Not Just the Symptoms Assessment, a one-on-one visit that finds what’s really driving your injury and gives you a clear plan. We serve athletes in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, and Estero.

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