The Sports Hernia in Football
The Lowdown on One of Football's Nagging Injuries
The NFL’s elite have a common name for an injury that has afflicted its elite, clinically known as Athletic Publagia, but commonly known as the Sports Hernia. To some extent, this is an unassuming injury. What seems like groin pain accounts for 5-20% of all athletic injuries and has become prevalent in football in the past few years.
Gilmore's Groin
The sports hernia has also been dubiously dubbed “Gilmore’s Groin”, named after Gerry Gilmore, who recognized the condition in 1980 and developed the surgical technique to repair it. The syndrome involves chronic groin pain and other stress in the inguinal canal that cannot be found during a physical examination or even surgery. Patients with a Sports Hernia may also experience pain in the testicles.
The condition is caused by participating in sports that involve considerable bending and twisting. Pain often coincides with physical activity and can be eased with bed rest and medication such as ibuprofen. Several hours of playing football will cause considerable discomfort for a quarterback with a Sports Hernia, but the pain will be far less after a night of bed rest. However, that does not mean that the hernia itself has ceased.
How is a Sports Hernia Different From a Regular Hernia?
The Sports Hernia differs from the traditionally understood hernia because a normal hernia involves a protrusion in the stomach lining, either in the groin or the navel. These hernias are typically caused by physical factors such as heavy lifting or other types of strain and involve the risk of strangulation. The surgical technique to correct would be traditional.
The surgeon will often find a conjoint tendon torn from the pubic tubercle, a tear in the conjoint tendon, a tear in the sascia transversalis, among other symptoms. Sometimes these findings can happen simultaneously. The athlete may also have a weakness or tear in the adductor muscles in the hip.
Football Players Who Have Suffered From a Sports Hernia
While some argue that Sports Hernias are rare, the NFL and the football world as a whole, have seen more instances of it, including high profile players such as New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Other sufferers include New Orleans Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donavan McNabb, and Alabama Crimson Tide wide receiver Julio Jones.
This injury is significant as 6-8 weeks are needed to recover from the surgery. While players like McNabb and Brady have waited until season’s end to undergo surgery, they still had to play out the season with a nagging injury, which no franchise wishes on their star player.
For more information on Sports Hernias, check out Sports Hernia South.
What do you think about this article?
Latest Articles