Chiropractic and Prep Soccer: The Goal Is Good Health

Reviewed by: Dr. Steven Knauf, D.C.

By Paul Rothbart

Soccer is the most popular team sport in the world. The incredible buzz that surrounds the World Cup every four years is simple proof of that. Although it doesn’t occupy the No.1 spot in the United States, soccer has grown in popularity over the last several decades. Professional soccer teams draw good crowds and many American fans get excited for the prospects of the men’s and women’s World Cup teams.

Soccer is a popular participation sport with kids. Every community has a youth league, and high school players love to compete on the pitch.

How Popular Is High School Soccer?

Soccer is enormously popular among both male and female high school students. In the 2021-22 school year, nearly 375,000 girls and 437,000 boys across the nation participated on their high school soccer teams. These young athletes are well-supported by their fellow students, faculty, and their families.

Prep soccer players compete just as hard as their classmates who play football, basketball, or any other sport. Soccer is challenging, and running up and down the pitch kicking, passing, tackling, heading, and occasionally running into an opponent can take quite a toll on the body. Injuries are not uncommon.

Which Injuries Are Soccer Players Prone to Having?

Soccer players do a lot of running on a very large field. They change direction quickly, cutting on a dime, kicking, and making explosive moves that can easily stress the joints. It’s no surprise that players are frequently injured.

Overuse Injuries

Overuse injuries are common in many sports and soccer is one of them. They typically occur in the lower body because of the extensive use of the legs. Injuries typically include Achilles tendonitis and patellar tendonitis, shin splints, as well as thigh and calf muscle strains, and groin pulls.

Lower Body Injuries

Other types of lower body injuries are common among soccer players. Sprains to the ankles and knees happen frequently. Stress fractures in the feet are another common lower-body injury. Among the more serious knee injuries are cartilage tears and anterior cruciate ligament sprains; ACL injuries generally require surgery to repair and take time to heal.

Upper Body Injuries

Although soccer players, with the exception of goaltenders, don’t use their arms much, wrist sprains and fractures sometimes occur when a player falls on an outstretched arm. Collisions can also cause an injury to the wrists, elbows, or shoulders.

Face and Head Injuries

The face and head are vulnerable to collisions with other players, hitting the ground after a fall, or being struck with the ball. Cuts, contusions, and scrapes are common. Neck sprains and concussions are other injuries that sometimes happen.

Are Girls More Prone to Certain Injuries?

With the physical differences between men and women and boys and girls, it’s no surprise that high school girls are more prone to some types of injuries than their male counterparts.

ACL injuries are more common in females with girls more than twice as likely as boys to suffer a torn ACL. The theory is that males activate their hip abductors in their kicking leg and hip flexors in their supporting leg more than female players; not doing this places added stress on the knee joints of the girls, which leads to an increased risk of an ACL injury.

More research is needed to confirm the theory, but trainers recommend extra strength training of the hips for girls.

Can Chiropractic Treat Injuries?

Soccer players need treatment for their sports injuries and chiropractic care can be effective in many cases.

Many injuries to one part of the body are connected to a problem in another part. When chiropractors treat an athlete, they perform a physical examination, checking the spine and joints for subluxations and other issues. In addition to treating the area of the injury, a chiropractor will put together a treatment plan to correct any problems found in the spine and joints. An adjustment to the relevant joint gets the entire body working together the way it is designed to.

Some of the injuries chiropractors can help treat include strains and sprains. Chiropractic treatment includes helping soft tissue injuries to heal. Chiropractic has become an important part of sports medicine.

Is Spondylolisthesis Common Among Soccer Players?

Studies have found that low back pain in young soccer players is frequently caused by lumbar spondylolisthesis. In contact sports such as football, this condition is caused by its physicality, but in sports like soccer -- even though it can be physical -- it is due to overuse. Young bodies that are not yet fully developed are more prone to spondylolisthesis than adults.

This ailment occurs in the lower vertebrae and happens when they are stretched when overused. Stress fractures can occur, which cause pain. This is an injury that chiropractic can be very helpful in treating.

How Can Chiropractic Impact a Soccer Player’s Performance?

Chiropractic treatments can do more than just heal soccer injuries. They can help boost performance. When the spine and joints are properly aligned, they are able to function over their full range of motion. Actions like running and kicking become more efficient. Players can perform at their best with a properly functioning body. A correctly aligned spine takes pressure off the spinal cord and may improve nerve performance and reflexes.

Chiropractic may also help prevent injuries. After treatments, the body can better withstand the stress and rigors of a match. When players stay healthy, they stay on the pitch where they can help their teams.

Famous Soccer Players Who Use Chiropractic

Prep soccer players should make note of the fact that several world-class athletes in their sport have used chiropractic to help them reach the top of the soccer world.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Five-time FIFA Player of the Year, the legendary Ronaldo has had an incredible career and his name is well-known even among people who don’t follow soccer. Ronaldo has suffered numerous injuries throughout the years and has tendinosis in his knees. How has he lasted so long? The great Ronaldo has been a chiropractic patient for years and even has a chiropractor who travels with him. He acknowledges that this form of sports medicine has made significant contributions to his longevity and success.

Carlos Alberto Torres

The great defender Carlos Alberto Torres was a fixture on Brazil’s World Cup teams from 1964 to 1977, capturing the big prize in 1970. He was later a teammate of Pele’s on the New York Cosmos.

Torres suffered from back pain that kept him off the pitch and sometimes on crutches. When he was referred to a chiropractor, the treatments successfully healed his injuries and got him back in the game. Torres swore by chiropractic for the rest of his career as well as his life away from the game.

U.S Women’s World Cup Team

The U.S. Women’s National Soccer team has enjoyed considerable success in the World Cup. Dr. Michael Foudy was the squad’s official chiropractor from 1996-2004. He served in that capacity for the legendary team that won it all in 1999. Dr. Foudy said that all but one member of the team relied on his treatments during training and before matches. The players felt that the treatments helped them heal more quickly from injuries and gave them the competitive edge they needed to compete with the world’s best.

The Goal Is Good Health

Soccer has grown enormously in popularity among American fans and athletes over the last several decades. It’s a sport that many high school boys and girls love playing. Preventing and treating the numerous injuries common to the sport and giving the players the best chance to succeed should be the goal of every parent.

The Joint Chiropractic has clinics all over the U.S. You don’t need an appointment so consider bringing your budding soccer star in for an exam and treatment. Chiropractic has a good track record for helping soccer players kick it into high gear.

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