OnYaHead.com | The Football Blog Network

The most common type of groin injury sustained by footballers is, as in the hamstring, a groin strain (or pulled groin).

The groin is actually an area of muscles at the top of the thigh on the inside of the leg, rather than just a single muscle. This group of muscles work together to move the leg inwards, medially.

Groin strains are most likely to occur in sports that involve sprinting or twisting. You may even pull your groin by kicking a solid, stationary object…so don’t do it.

Ways to detect a groin strain

Symptoms that indicate a pulled groin include swelling, bruising or a sharp pain in the area. You may also experience an inability to move the leg inwards. Be warned also, problems may only appear a day later rather than immediately….so when you see one of your club’s players play a full 90mins and then decide on the monday after the game that they have a groin strain, don’t get on their backs too much. The symptoms may just not have come up straight away!

Treatment

You may have heard of the RICE treatment before. It basically stands for Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. These are the steps that you need to take if you are suffering from you think might be a groin strain. Get plenty of rest (so no more football for a bit), keep the area compressed (one of those stretchy bandages is a good idea), ice the area (do this immediately) and stick your leg up in the air (just make sure you prop it up with something otherwise it will ache. A lot.)