Injury screening for AFL

Our physiotherapists Michael and Fraser recently completed injury screenings for De La Salle Old Collegians Amateur Football Club as part of their preseason. Injury screening completed by a physiotherapist is a useful tool to assist with preseason and injury prevention. Whilst many people attend physiotherapy after they have sustained an injury, identifying elements that may lead to increased injury and completing “prehab” has been shown to reduce the likelihood injury actually occurring in the first place. Screenings are beneficial regardless of age from those involved in junior sport all the way through to elite sport. In fact, our team regularly perform injury screenings for people who are just starting out with exercise or have taken a break from exercise. This screening allows your physiotherapist to develop a tailored and safe exercise program.

What is an injury screen?

An injury screen involves getting information about your injury history and conducting some simple tests to identify any risk factors that may predispose you to injury. Depending on the nature of the sport and it’s common injuries, specific screening protocols can be completed. The aim from a screen is to identify any factors that may increase the likelihood of a musculoskeletal injury.

The best time to complete an injury screen is in preseason. A typical injury screening includes assessing strength, joint range of motion, muscle flexibility and functional movement patterns specific to the sport.

Injury screenings for AFL

Given the nature of AFL, common injuries include soft tissue injuries and knee and ankle injuries. As part of our injury screening program, our physiotherapists have developed a specific AFL injury screen inline with current AFL and Sports Medicine Australia protocols.

Our AFL injury-screen includes the following:

• Flexibility including hamstring length and ankle flexibility.
• Strength assessment using our Ax-IT technology examining shoulder strength and hamstring strength.
• Functional assessments including changing of direction, jumping and agility exercises.
• Concussion and baseline screening.
•  Injury history.

To learn more about how injury screening can help you, contact our team or book online.