A muscle strain occurs when a muscle is loaded and a number of the muscle fibres become torn and inflammation of the tissue occurs.
A chronic hamstring tear is an injury common to many sports. Cricket is no different.
There are numerous risk factors for developing this injury, the most likely being a previous injury to the hamstring muscle. This is a very important point as it emphasizes the importance of rehabilitating the hamstring muscle adequately when it is first injured, to prevent recurrence.
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Other factors which could cause a chronic hamstring strain would be muscle imbalance, lower back inflexibility or pain, inappropriate training, and slipping while batting or bowling.
A chronic hamstring strain can also involve an underlying ‘nerve problem’ and should be assessed by a physiotherapist.
An acute hamstring strain is associated with an acute overload of the muscle, which could occur during batting or fielding in a pressure situation.
Management focuses on rehabilitation of the hamstring and surrounding muscles. It is important that this rehabilitation is sport specific and that the muscle is retrained using similar speeds and loads as required when playing cricket.
- Janine Gray. BSc (Physio), BSc(Med)(Hons) Exercise Science. Lecturer at the University of Cape Town and affiliated to the High performance Centre at Cricket South Africa.
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