24
May
2022
|
17:57 PM
America/New_York

Injuries on NFL punts are up 50%: What's the cause? What's the fix?

ESPN.com reports on data from the NFL showing the rate of missed time for injuries that occurred on punt plays increased by about 50% over the past two seasons and includes commentary from Scott A. Rodeo, MD, sports medicine surgeon at HSS.

Dr. Rodeo said, “You have athletes running over long distances. They're running at high speeds, with a rapid plant and cut, decelerations in the open field, and sometimes it's reckless. When you're running at very high speeds and have collisions at high speed, that's a pretty good working theory right there.”

Dr. Rodeo is monitoring research that could help identify players who are at risk of knee ligament tears, determined by factors that include abnormal geometry of the knee as well as deficits in balance, coordination and neuromuscular control in the hip and core areas.

He explained that applying that research with various conditioning techniques, protective equipment and “subtle rule changes,” would “give me some optimism that you can start to solve this problem by chipping away at it.”

Read the full article at Espn.com.