Where are the main injuries in padel located? What are the remedies? How long are we usually unavailable? Pierre-Olivier Ferrand shares his study with us.

We carried out an analysis of the traumatic locations by structure of the padel court (Tables 9 to 15). Each table corresponds to a structure and lists the number of injuries according to the body area affected, also dissociating men and women.

Two different totals are used. On the one hand, we note the total number of injuries with the structure in question, on the other hand the total number of athletes who have presented a traumatic pathology in relation. The difference between these two sections is explained by the fact that the same athlete can have several different injuries, resulting in a higher number of pathologies than the number of subjects.

Pierre-Olivier Ferrand, General practitioner trained in sports pathologies and manual medicine, dissects for us  TRAUMATIC PATHOLOGIES OF PADEL PLAYERS  as part of his thesis which you can find in full HERE]. .

This difference allows us in a second time to discern two relationships:

  • The ratio between the number of injuries and the number of injured, a ratio that allows us to represent the frequency of traumatic pathologies according to the different parts of the body.
  • The ratio between the number of injuries and the total number of athletes, which allows us to assess the general potential of the structure and to be able to compare them with each other.

We will take for example the traumatic injuries with the windows of the field (Table 9).

86 injuries were highlighted with this structure, 21 in women and 65 in men.

However, only 76 athletes out of the 324 people questioned presented a traumatic pathology.

The analysis of the data collected counted 13 pathologies of the lower limb related to the windows, which represents 17,11% of the people who responded positively to the presence of an injury with this structure. On the other hand, this ratio drops to only 4,01% if we consider all of the subjects surveyed.

Location of traumatic pathologies by structure

padel injury
Table 9 Distribution of traumatic pathologies related to glass
padel injury
Table 10 Distribution of traumatic pathologies linked to the grid
padel injury
Table 11 Distribution of traumatic pathologies linked to the net and its posts
padel injury
Table 12 Distribution of traumatic pathologies linked to the bullet
padel injury
Table 13 Distribution of traumatic pathologies linked to snowshoeing
padel injury
Table 14 Distribution of traumatic pathologies in relation to the surface area of ​​the terrain
padel injury
Table 15 Distribution of traumatic pathologies linked to another player

Use of the care offer

padel injury
Table 16 Use of the health system

The questionnaire also allowed athletes to be asked about possible medical consultations that resulted from their traumatic pathologies. Padel players were therefore invited to express their views on their use of the health system following their injuries. They had a multiple choice between 4 propositions: no medical consultation necessary, general medical consultation, consultation with a specialist doctor and consultation with an emergency service.

The medical consultation needs were analyzed for each structure of the padel player's environment and listed in the table above (Table 16).

The analysis highlights 131 medical consultations caused by traumatic pathologies. On the other hand, this table shows 2 different totals.

The first, horizontally, makes it possible to total the number of medical consultations in connection with the traumatic pathologies of the structure studied. Thus, there were 52 medical consultations for pathologies caused by the surface of the ground, including 27 consultations with a general practitioner and 19 consultations with a specialist doctor. A consultation with an emergency service was necessary in the case of 6 pathologies caused by the windows of the field.

Regarding the vertical reading of the table, the study makes it possible to identify the number of medical consultations with general practitioners (58), specialists (47) and emergency physicians (26) all structures combined.

Periods of unavailability linked to traumatic pathologies

padel injury
Table 17 Duration of padel break following traumatic pathology

The last part of the study focused on the duration of unavailability of the padel player in relation to the traumatic pathology encountered. According to the different structures, the durations are divided into four increasing categories: no stoppage of sport, stoppage duration of less than 7 days, stoppage duration between 7 days and one month and stoppage duration of more than 1 month. The results of the questionnaire are thus summarized in Table 17.

In addition to players who were not injured, it is noted that the majority of players who suffered a traumatic pathology were not forced to observe an interruption of their practice. Of all the people who responded to the questionnaire, 137 interruptions of practice were recorded. A certain homogeneity in the periods of inactivity is also highlighted. The number of short-term inactivity appears as significant as the long periods of more than a month. If padel seems to cause pathologies that are not very disabling, we cannot therefore rule out the presence of more serious pathologies requiring a significant period of inactivity.

padel injury
Figure 2 Distribution of periods of padel stoppage
padel injury
Figure 3 Distribution of periods of padel stoppage in percentage

Figures 2 and 3 highlight the distribution of these periods of unavailability according to the traumatic structures. We find a majority of responses relating to an absence of stopping the sport. We can see that not all structures lead to the same duration of unavailability. The surface of the court, the windows and even the padel racket cause pathologies that cause more periods of rest. We thus note 18 stops of more than one month, 24 stops of between 7 days and one month in relation to traumatic pathologies caused by the surface of the court, and 11 interruptions of sport of less than 7 days with the padel racket. Conversely, traumatic pathologies caused by the grids, the net and the posts, the ball and the other players seem to be at the origin of a rather low stoppage of activity.

Pierre-Olivier Ferrand

A tennis fanatic since he was very young, Pierre-Olivier discovered a passion for padel in 2018. A general practitioner trained in sports pathologies and manual medicine, he juggles between rackets and stethoscope for his greatest pleasure.

On the same subject