Hockey & Field Sport Physiotherapy

Field hockey asks the body to generate power and change direction from a sustained flexed posture, which loads the lower back and hips in a way few other sports do. Add sprinting on turf, repeated rotation, and direct trauma from stick and ball, and the injury profile becomes distinctive.

Low back pain is the most common presentation, usually driven by the combination of flexion and rotation under load rather than by a single incident. Hip and groin problems follow, including the femoroacetabular impingement-type presentations that the flexed posture provokes. Hamstring strains, ankle sprains and hand or wrist injuries from stick contact make up most of the rest.

Management centres on hip mobility and strength, trunk control through rotation, and building the capacity to tolerate a flexed position over a full match and a full season. Where the problem is positional and recurring, the assessment looks at how you actually move in the playing posture rather than in standing.