Jack Philllips

Introduction

Youth athletes are prone skeletal physes/ apophyses injuries, traumatic fractures and bone stress injuries (BSI). BSI, occurring due to a mismatch between microdamage formation/removal following repetitive loads, leads to weakness and pain, resulting in significant time loss for athletes. It is recommended that all bone overuse injuries are described by the term BSI, encompassing stress reactions (altered signal within the marrow, endosteum and/or periosteum) and stress fractures (fracture line evident).

Football has high osteogenic benefits, demonstrating positive bone adaptations. Despite the osteogenic benefits, BSI are common within youth football players. Within football, significant changes in training and matchday demands occur, as individuals transition from off-season to pre-season, progress in competition level, or progress in age groups. Such changes can be hazardous, increasing BSI risk.

Improving the skeletons ability to resist load by inducing mechanoadaptation, and reducing skeletal damage accumulation, can reduce BSI risk. This review will discuss a) bone adaptation to loading
b) how to improve the skeletons’ ability to resist load by inducing mechano- adaptation, and c) how to manage loads being introduced to the skeleton.