Be it at a recreational or elite level, athletes have all been greatly affected by the pandemic in some way or another. The virus has made an impact and disrupted structured training within various sporting disciplines.

Well-known sports doctor Kirill Micallef Stafrace recently stated that due to the Coronavirus pandemic, his patient base has changed, as well as the injury patterns he is seeing.

Asked by The Malta Independent on Sunday why this is happening and what can be done to prevent these types of injuries, Micallef Stafrace remarked that one must appreciate that Covid-19 has affected physical activity and exercise in different ways.

Organised sport has been severely disrupted, with some competitions and events being cancelled or repeatedly rescheduled. However, on the flip side, Micallef Stafrace said that “we have a large swath of the population that has taken up physical activity either as a new lifestyle choice, or because their own sport has been disrupted.”

Bearing this in mind, it would make sense to see fewer injuries related to contact sports and more related to overuse or unaccustomed use, he said.

In fact, many ‘actual’ sports-related injuries have decreased drastically during this pandemic period as “less sports means less injuries, especially contact related ones.”

“We all know that competition and training for competition makes people exert themselves harder, giving rise to the likeness of causing an injury. Yet, at the same time certain overuse injuries, such as tendon problems, have increased due to the increase in overall physical activity,” he said.

The pandemic has caused many people to think twice about going to the gym or anywhere indoors with a bunch of strangers, therefore gym rats as well as newbies might be resorting to working out at home. Although it is very beneficial to do so in order to keep fit and maintain healthy, especially during times like these, some might be leaping into workouts that are out of their league, giving rise to injuries.

There are a number of tendencies that can lead to an injury. According to Micallef Stafrace, this could be the result of “time constraints, unrealistic targets, inexperienced exercises or even worse trainers, as well as people who started exercise without a prior base and hence haven’t learnt to listen to their body when the alarm bells start going off.”

Therefore, this increase in overuse injuries might be occurring either because people aren’t accustomed to the type of exercise or sport they are doing, or else they started undertaking completely new exercises or picked up a new sport.

Despite this, there are a number of ways to prevent certain injuries from happening. Micallef Stafrace highlighted that consistence is key, as well as ensuring one is exercising safely, both for the activity itself but also ensuring it is undertaken in a safe environment.

“Funnily enough, although some might feel that our home is the safest place to be, it can be a dangerous place to exercise, with carpets, toys and pets lurking everywhere. Therefore, it is important to knowing one’s limit,” he said.

Micallef Stafrace added that when exercising at home one must be ambitious, but cautious and realistic. Most importantly, when doing any sport or exercise, one must learn to listen to what your own body is telling you. Although injuries might occur even if one takes the necessary safety measures, pain and injuries will happen regardless. However, one can prevent them from turning into serious or long-term injuries.

In addition, the type of injuries that Micallef Stafrace seems to be encountering are varied, however, the majority seem to be related with less contact related injuries, such as direct contusions or twisted knees.

“Instead, I am seeing more of overuse injuries such as plantar fasciitis (heel pain) and Achilles tendon problems in people who have taken up running or walking to levels they never achieved before. I’ve recently also encountered upper limb and back issues for people who have started resistance exercise either at home or in gyms,” he said.

“During the Covid-19 pandemic, I have also seen the trend of obstacle course racing (OCR) and CrossFit popularity increase which carry their intrinsic health concerns.”

Micallef Stafrace stressed the importance of choosing the right selection of trainers as “one must not forget the effect quarantine has on activity levels and returning to full training too quickly after a period of forced inactivity, can lead to an injury, even in an experienced athlete.”

The reason why experienced athletes who supposedly are well aware of the proper training procedures still face a number of injuries during this time, could be due to a combination of trying new challenges to compensate for lack of competition, that has led to injuries due to exercise they are not accustomed to.

He explained that in sport such as football, Covid-19 has led to another problem, as the constant match rescheduling and quarantine of players and teams has led to fixture congestion, which carries its own injury risks.

“At this point I must stress with any person who undertakes a certain level of physical activity, as Covid-19 has been shown to affect the heart in a small number of individuals, even those that were asymptomatic,” he said.

Micallef Stafrace strongly recommended people to go for a thorough medical check-up, that includes minimally an electrocardiogram (ECG), if they were infected with the virus and are resuming any sport activity. An ECG is a test which records the electrical activity of the heart at rest.