Adolescent injury management

Injuries related to sports participation fall into two types of trauma: micro (due to repetitive trauma) and macro (due to a single traumatic event). Often these injuries are trivialized and the young athlete is asked or encouraged to "toughen up and play through the pain."

This approach is not in the young athlete's best interest for the following reasons:

• • It often leads to delayed healing and return to sports
• • It can turn an easily treatable injury into one that becomes difficult to treat, and
• • In some cases, it can result in a prominent injury that precludes sports participation