• Overuse Injuries - Players (basketball, tennis, baseball, football, soccer, lacrosse, and others) spend a large amount of time in practice and conditioning for games. Practice involves hours of running, repetitive drills, and scrimmages daily, and while practice serves to strengthen and improve flexibility in the lower extremities, the repeated stress of practice may cause overuse injuries. Overuse injuries also come from faulty biomechanics of the feet, or the way the lower extremity physically adjusts to the ground. Overuse injuries include injuries such as shin splints, stress fractures, corns, calluses, blisters, and others.

• Trauma Injuries - The foot and ankle bear the brunt of the crashes, bumps, and bruises of contact sports. Feet get stepped on, kicked, jammed, twisted, and cut. Trauma injuries include injuries such as sprains and fractures of the ankle and foot. Trauma injuries are more serious than overuse injuries, and require recovery time away from the practice and game field. Immediate treatment should include the "RICE" formula: Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. Trauma injuries should be treated by a medical professional such as a podiatrist, and be fully healed before the player returns to the field. 

Some common sports injuries include:

• Shin Splints - Shin splints are small tears or inflammation of the anterior leg muscles (muscles in the front of the leg). Pain is located a few inches below the knee on the inner side of the leg.

• Ankle Sprains - A sprain is a stretched or torn ligament. These are more common in older children than fractures. A sprain may cause extensive swelling around the ankle and immediate treatment is crucial to promote healing.

• Stress Fractures - Stress fractures are incomplete cracks in bone caused by overuse. 

• Corns, Calluses, Blisters - These friction injuries are caused by repeated friction rubbing and usually occur on the feet. 

• Turf Toe - Turf toe is a painful jam or hyperextension of the great toe. The condition is more common on artificial turf, but can occur on grass as well. 

• Sever's Disease - This is a common injury in children and is an inflammation of a growth plate. Sever's Disease is often felt as pain behind the heel caused by inflammation of the apophysis, a growth center where a tendon is attached to the bone. 

Treatment 

• Shin Splints - Treatment for shin splints involves rest as the most important component in healing these injuries. If pain is persistent, see a podiatrist, who can recommend strengthening exercises, certain shoes, or, if needed, prescribe custom-made shoe inserts known as orthotics.

• Ankle Sprains - Immediate treatment using the RICE (REST, ICE, COMPRESSION, ELEVATION) formula to reduce swelling is important to promote healing. Any sprain that doesn't show improvement in three days should be checked by a podiatric physician. Most sprains heal within 2 - 6 weeks with appropriate treatment. The RICE formula involves:
  
  Rest - keep weight off the injured ankle as much as possible. Using crutches will allow movement without placing undue weight on the injury. An air cast or splint may be applied to the ankle for support.
  
  Ice - Applying ice to the injury reduces swelling. The usual routine is to apply ice packs for 20 minutes at a time every hour or so for the first day after the injury, and thereafter as long as swelling persists. Place ice in a plastic bag, wrap the plastic bag in a lightweight towel, and apply to the area of swelling; do not place ice directly against skin.
  
  Compression - Compression means supporting the ankle and foot with a firmly wrapped elastic bandage, compression stocking or gel wrap. If swelling causes the bandage to become tight, it should be loosened immediately. Do not wrap the injured area too tightly.
  
  Elevation - Elevating the foot above the level of the heart minimizes blood pooling and swelling in the affected area. This should be done as much as possible during the first 48 hours after the injury.

• Stress Fractures - If a fracture is not severe, rest and immobilization may be the best treatment. More complicated injuries may require casting or surgical correction.

• Corns, Calluses, Blisters - Corns and calluses should not be trimmed with sharp objects; the area should be buffed with a pumice stone after bathing. Blisters can be pierced on the side with a sterilized needle and the fluid drained, with an antibiotic ointment applied. The roof of the blister should not be removed. Use of a frictionless pad can provide relief from blisters.

• Turf Toe - Immediate treatment of turf toe includes the RICE formula. Wearing a stiffer shoe can prevent aggravation of the injury. Splinting the toe or use of orthotics can provide support for the toe.

• Sever's Disease - Rest, ice, and heel lifts are usually prescribed.

Prevention

Before participating in a sport activity, it's wise to be examined by a podiatric physician specializing in sports medicine, who will identify any biomechanical abnormalities that increase the chance of injury. The podiatrist may recommend specific exercises to strengthen and improve flexibility of the foot and ankle, stretching and warm-up/cool down exercises, and/or taping or padding of the foot or ankle before practice and competition. A podiatrist may also prescribe orthotics, customized shoe inserts that correct biomechanical problems by redistributing the body's weight. The podiatric physician can provide direction on the type of sport shoe to use.

Wearing the appropriate shoe for the sport is another way to help prevent sports injuries to the foot and ankle. Shoes should be sport-specific, with ankle support and shock absorption. Sport shoes may need to be replaced every 3 - 6 months, depending on use.

Warm-up and cool down exercises before and after practices and games can help to decrease or prevent injuries to the feet and ankles.

A Word About Children and Sports

Podiatric physicians warn that in children, repetitive overuse can cause inflammation of the growth plates. It is wise for parents to promote diverse physical activities for their children rather than one sport. This is especially important with individual sports such as running, gymnastics, and tennis, which require long hours of practice. Statistics show children who participate in just one sport for long hours at a time are setting themselves up for injuries. 

Because children's feet are constantly growing, it is important to allow at least one finger's width from the end of the longest toe to the end of the shoe when buying children's shoes, including sports shoes. When shopping for children's sport shoes, children should put on both shoes, with their athletic socks and the laces tied tight, for several minutes to properly check the shoes' fit. Shop for shoes in the afternoon, when the feet are naturally slightly swollen. 

In young children, an "all purpose" sport shoe works well for most sports. A running-specific shoe is not suitable as an "all purpose" sport shoe. After the age of 10, sport-specific shoes can help improve performance and protect the feet. Rubber cleats are not usually necessary for children under 10, though they pose little potential harm for them. They are most useful on a soft-field sport such as soccer. Podiatric physicians recommend molded shoe rubber cleats rather than the screw-on variety. Metal baseball spikes can be dangerous and should not be used until the teenage years. 

The immature bones of children are different from those of adults. The "growth plates" in children's bones do not finish closing until age 15-17 in boys and 13-15 in girls. When stressed, these plates are more susceptible to injury than the tendons and ligaments that support the joints. Ligaments tend to "give" before bones in adults.

A sports medicine podiatric physician can provide an examination of the entire lower extremity, and identify a leg length imbalance, weakness, or biomechanical imbalances that may need to be addressed to prevent injuries on the athletic field. Children should have fun when participating in sports, and the podiatrist can offer recommendations for decreasing children's sports injuries.