Whether it’s a nagging sprain, a frustrating strain, or something more serious like a fracture or dislocation, sports injuries can really throw a wrench in your game. But here’s the good news: working through this stuff is our thing.
At Boroondara Osteopathy, we’re pros at speeding up your recovery, easing the pain, and—most importantly—getting you back to doing what you love.
Our treatment doesn’t just address the injury itself; we dig deeper to tackle the root cause and set you up with a solid rehab plan so you can bounce back stronger than ever.
Ankle sprains are super common, nearly everyone will say “yeah I rolled my ankle once before”.
Ankle sprains are often occur in sports with lots of jumping and explosive change of direction such as netball, basketball and soccer, where you land on uneven ground or another persons foot.
Your ankle will roll, twist or land in a position that causes stretching or tearing of the ligaments that hold the ankle bones together. This mostly happens on the outer part of the ankle (inversion sprain) but can also occur on the inside ankle region (eversion sprain).
Common symptoms of an ankle sprain are pain, swelling, tenderness, bruising, restricted motion and instability.
Our job is to reduce inflammation, increase mobility of the joints, and get your confidence back into weight-bearing and “sporting” on that foot again.
Do we refer you for scans? Sometimes, but it depends on the severity on assessment.
NOTE: When the ligament is stretched forcefully it has the potential to pull at the bone with such strength that it can result in what is known as an ‘Avulsion Fracture’. This type of injury will require more extensive management and rehab, and also a longer healing time.
Tennis elbow is a common name for lateral epicondilitis. Tennis elbow pain stems from irritated muscles and tendons that connect the forearm to the upper arm, passing over the elbow joint on the outside.
It’s usually caused by overuse and repetitive movements such as playing tennis. Despite the name it can also occur in people who don’t play tennis too..
It is a common finding that the shoulder on the affected side is sitting in a poor biomechanical position which then overloads the forearm to perform a bigger task. Alongside strengthening the forearm with a specific re-loading program, it’s imperative that the shoulder mechanics are re-trained to reduce recurrence.
One of the best ways to rehab the muscles is a prescribed strengthening program that focuses specifically on the tendon itself. Our staff are highly skilled to implement this with you.
The rotator cuff is a group of muscles and tendons that help stabilize the shoulder during movement. It has a big job due to the way the shoulder is designed, for maximum movement range.
The rotator cuff can be impacted by a range of different injuries including strains, tears, and tendinitis.
Common symptoms of a rotator cuff injury include pain or tenderness when reaching overhead, trouble reaching behind your back, pain and weakness, and then that awful nagging referral of pain down the arm itself.
What’s good to know is that trigger points in the rotator cuff muscles are really common and can also mimic a more serious rotator cuff issue.
So the job is first to assess the actual joint mechanics and motion, muscle testing, and get an accurate examination happening.
Do we refer you for scanning? Sometimes, depending on the severity and outcome of the assessment.
Your hip flexors are a group of muscles commonly known for bringing your knee towards your chest, aka flexing your hip.
Common symptoms of hip flexor strains can include sudden pain, pain when stretching through the hip, tenderness to touch, swelling or bruising, even a flicking sound with hip motion.
Athletes who compete in dance, gymnastics, martial arts and soccer are more likely to suffer from hip flexor strains, but it’s really common if you are sitting for your work or school hours. It just adds to the muscle shortening.
Hip flexor issues have a common referral to the low back so keep an eye out for that one, cos it’s not always pain at the front like most people think!! That’s where we come in! Book an appointment.
Shin splints is the common term for medial tibial stress syndrome. This refers to pain along the shinbone also known as your tibia.
Shin splints are common when using the foot to propel you forwards ie. pushing your toes into the ground to get more pace. These muscles of the foot are small, and frankly pushing you forwards is not their job. The propulsion effect in biomechanics belongs to big muscle groups of what is known as the extensor chain, namely the gluts (butt muscles) and the quads (front of thigh).
Shin splints can also be caused by overuse, foot biomechanics, running technique or even the shoes you are wearing.
It’s all about re-working your lower leg mechanics and loosening off the excessively tight leg muscles, to get some fluency back in the flow of your joints. This is our type of work!
The most common causes of groin pain include muscle, ligament, or tendon strains.
Another often unknown cause of groin pain is referred pain from the sacroiliac joint (SIJ) which is the connection from your spine to your pelvis at the back.
Groin pain may occur immediately after an injury or it may progress gradually over weeks or months. Either way, it’s worth assessing to identify why there is an imbalanced mechanical load in the area with your spine and hips. That’s where Osteopaths excel, by connecting the dots to solve the problem
Groin pain can commonly be seen in sports such as AFL, soccer and hockey, but even occur in your everyday low impact exercise such as walking can irritate an unhappy groin.
Our job is to look at the body and assess more than just the irritated area.
Concussion is defined as a complex physiological process affecting the brain, induced by biomechanical forces.
Concussion may be caused by either a direct or indirect blow to the head, face, neck or body causing an impulsive force transmitted to the head.
Common symptoms of concussion can include nausea, headaches, confusion, lack of coordination and dizziness.
We treat mild concussion in the clinic with Cranial Osteopathy as well as assessing the neck and back and reducing the impacts of the concussive event.
Firstly, it isn’t just for runners, but it can also be known as patellofemoral pain syndrome.
Common symptoms include pain usually in the front of the knee, difficulty when bending, squatting, kneeling or running and commonly it becomes worse when walking downstairs.
Common risk factors for runner’s knee include running on hard surfaces like concrete or wearing poor fitting shoes with no support.
Our advanced treatment approach with biomechanics will re-balance you knee motion with your hip and ankle to take the stress out of the “middle-man” so to speak. If you have ongoing patello-femoral pain, it’s not all about strengthening, you usually need to add in very specific knee motion re-training to stop that annoying recurrence.
Tendons are the ropey bands of tissue that connect muscles to bones and help move the body. Tendonitis is also known as the irritation or inflammation of one of these tendons.
Tendonitis can occur in any tendon but is most common in the:
Common symptoms of tendonitis include pain, tenderness, and mild swelling.
Risk factors can include a sudden increase in activity, poor fitting shoes, hard surfaces, poor 
biomechanics, and too little recovery time.
The pain of tendonitis often has you reducing use of the affected area which consequently weakens the muscle and tendon. BUT this can be rehabilitated with a measured strength reloading program to get the strength back and the pain gone.
Tendon tears are can be partial or if they are a full tear then they are described as a tendon rupture.
Along with pain and swelling, tendon tears are commonly accompanied by a popping sound or feeling in the tissue.
Common symptoms include severe pain, bruising, pain and discomfort that worsens with tendon use, weakness and decreased range of motion.
The 4 most commonly ruptured tendons are:
ACL injuries are becoming very well known in sports such as football, netball, and basketball.
An ACL injury is generally known as a tear to the anterior cruciate ligament – one of the main ligaments that provides support to your knee.
Common symptoms of an ACL injury include a loud popping or cracking sound, instability, pain, swelling, and stiffness.
The swelling occurs very quickly from an ACL injury compared to other knee injuries.
Rehabilitation is a must whether you require surgery or not, to repair the ligament.
Your plantar fascia is a thick band that attaches the heel to the base of the toes. It helps support the arch of the foot and has an important role in normal foot mechanics.
Plantar fasciitis involves inflammation of this thick band causing pain along the bottom of the foot.
It’s typically felt at the front of the heel bone and often worse as you get our of bed.
Athletes who compete in sports such as running, dancing and aerobics may be at higher risk for plantar fasciitis due to the increased stress on the heel bone, but with a change in mechanical use of the foot and lower limb, plantar fasciitis can be a thing of the past!
Often referred to as the calf muscle, the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles are located at the back of our lower leg and it is involved in standing, walking, running, and jumping.
Calf strains can commonly be seen in sports with high speed running, high volumes of running and acceleration and deceleration such as AFL, netball and track athletics.
Common symptoms include a sudden pain in the back of the leg, swelling, bruising and difficulty contracting the muscle. If you tear the calf, it can feel like a big “whack” on the back of your leg
Our rehab involves specific ankle and knee exercises to regain the most functional mobility of your lower leg, while treating the muscle injury itself. We do both so we can avoid re-injury.
What’s yours? An ache, a sharp grab, annoying dull pain?
This all depends on the cause. Did you feel it “go” in the moment? Or has it been a lingering thing.
Hamstrings treatment depends very much on the detail to receive the right process to rehab.
Our team will look for other signs and clues for injury in your low back, hips, knees and leg mechanics. We will check the position your pelvis is resting in because an imbalance there can cause hamstring havoc.
If you hammie is given you the irrits then book in for a full assessment and treatment to get you back out on whichever park, court, path or trail you desire!
Our Osteopaths are here to help you recover faster, feel better, and perform at your absolute best. We use a wide range of tailored techniques to tackle sports injuries, including:
But we don’t stop there! We’ll chat with you about potential lifestyle tweaks—like refining your diet or exercise routine—to speed up healing and keep those injuries at bay.
Even better? We’re not just about recovery; we’re about unlocking your full potential. By addressing hidden imbalances or weaknesses, we’ll help you boost your athletic performance and stay one step ahead of future injuries.