Not All Pain Is Caused by Tissue Damage in Sports. Should Management Change?

Abstract

SYNOPSIS: A sports injury need not imply objective or subjective signs of tissue damage. Pain and impaired performance can count as an injury, which is often measured by the inability to play or participate in training and/or competition. Pain in the presence, and in the absence, of objective tissue damage is common in sports, but there are important differences in how sports-related pain and injury are managed, such as whether return to sport should be time and/or pain contingent. This editorial proposes a pragmatic definition of sports-related pain to support clinicians with a semantic and practical description of what sports-related pain is, and the implications for helping athletes manage pain in the absence of tissue injury. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2024;54(11):681-686. Epub 21 October 2024. doi:10.2519/jospt.2024.12462.

Keywords: pain; pain in athletes; sports injury; sports medicine; sports physiotherapy; sports-related pain.