High school athletes overcome their injuries

Sean Liuli

Although the pandemic has shut down most sports, it has not stopped some student athletes from competing. And with competition, at times, comes the risk of injury.

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, an estimated 8.6 million sports injuries happen per year. High school athletes make up more than 2 million of those injuries.

Generally, injuries that affect high school athletes fall under two categories. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) categorizes injuries as either acute or overuse injuries.

Acute injuries are often caused by sudden trauma, such as blunt collisions or awkward falls. According to AAOS, the most common acute injuries found in high school athletes include bruises, strains, sprains, and fractures. Although not common, catastrophic sports injuries such as concussions or growth plate injuries are also considered acute.

On the otherhand, overuse injuries happen over long periods when parts of the body do not have time to heal between athletic activity. Common overuse injuries include aches and pains, as well as more extensive injuries such as stress fractures.

Junior Andrew Ghazouli, who runs for Carlmont High School’s Cross Country team, has recently suffered from one of these overuse injuries.

Ghazouli has been running for around four years and has suffered some minor injuries, but his most recent injury has been his first major one.

“Basically, I have this thing called femoroacetabular impingement, or FAI, which basically means there is a bump on my hip. When I overuse my hip, it aggravates my labrum, and so I ended up tearing it,” Ghazouli said.

According to the AAOS, femoroacetabular impingement is a condition in which an extra bone grows along the hip joint and can cause pain or further injury when the bones rub against each other during movement. Over long periods, this condition can cause extra damage to the hip joint, which may need further medical attention.

“I was training for cross country over the summer and all of a sudden I woke up and my hip was hurting. I had surgery for it in January,” Ghazouli said.

Although the cause for his injury has largely been resolved, that is not to say he has completely recovered. Nearly four months after his surgery, Ghazouli still has a ways to go before he can return to the competition.

“I’m still recovering and doing physical therapy. I am doing some abdominal workouts, side steps, monster walks, and a little bit of stationary biking,” Ghazouli said.

The recent pandemic has only complicated things, with many medical institutions being overloaded by work dealing with the continual spikes in COVID-19 cases. Luckily enough, Ghazouli’s recovery process has not been inhibited at all by the pandemic, and he has largely been able to receive all the medical attention he has needed.

“I got really lucky that they didn’t cancel my surgery. When we talked to the nurses, they said they didn’t think they would have surgeries on the day I got it because it was right when cases spiked,” Ghazouli said. “If I were a little less lucky, I’d probably still be waiting to have my surgery right now.”

His injury and the recovery process have still taken a chunk out of his daily life, making many seemingly simple tasks more difficult. However, Ghazouli still finds methods to cope and overcome the new challenges he faces with his injury.

“For a while, I was walking with a limp. I had a hard time with stairs and other things that involved lifting my leg past a certain point. Over time, I kind of just got used to avoiding certain movements. With things like stairs, I just try my best to use an elevator or my good leg,” Ghazouli said.

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, many sports-related injuries in minors are preventable through several means. Many of these strategies include pre-season physicals, cross-training, as well as warming up. Nonetheless, Ghazouli’s injury has taught him much more about sports-related injuries themselves and how he can prevent one in the future.

“I’ve definitely become a lot more cautious, and I feel like in the future, I’d be much more willing to take breaks if I feel like I need them,” Ghazouli said. “I feel like I’d also spend more time doing things like stretching and warming up.”