Soreness or a problem?
Muscle soreness after a hard session is diffuse, symmetrical, worst a day or two later, and eases as the child warms up. It is a normal training response.
Treat it as a problem instead when the pain is in one specific spot, when it is in a joint, when it makes the child limp or change technique, when it wakes them at night, or when it is worse at the start of the next session than at the end of the last one. Those are the signals worth acting on, and none of them require a diagnosis to notice.
What tends to show up, and why
- Overuse complaints around the knee and heel, common in growing athletes doing a lot of running and jumping.
- Ankle sprains, the most familiar acute injury in court and pitch sports.
- Shoulder and elbow irritation in throwing and racket sports, usually a volume problem rather than a technique problem alone.
- Recurring muscle strains, which are often a movement or workload issue rather than bad luck — the same strain twice is a reason to be assessed, not to stretch harder.
- Growth-related pain, which is real, common in adolescence, and a reason to adjust load rather than to stop sport altogether.
The overuse trap: too much, too soon, too specialised
The pattern behind most youth overuse injuries is a sudden jump in load — a new academy season, two clubs at once, a tournament week, or a return from a break at the intensity they left at. The body adapts to gradual increases and complains about abrupt ones.
Playing one sport all year round, with no off-season and no variety, concentrates the same stress on the same tissues. Where a child’s schedule allows it, variety and a genuine off-season are protective. This is general information, not a programme: workload for a specific child belongs with their coach and, where there is pain, a clinician.
Stop and get it looked at when
- The child cannot put full weight on it, or is limping.
- A joint is swollen, or feels unstable or like it gives way.
- Pain has lasted more than a few days, or keeps coming back in the same place.
- There is numbness, tingling, or pain that radiates.
- The child is guarding the area or has changed how they move to avoid it.
Who to see first
For pain, swelling or a joint that has changed how the child moves, a sports physiotherapist is the right first call: they assess, explain what is happening, treat, and build the rehabilitation that gets the athlete back. For a suspected fracture, a head injury or severe pain, go to a doctor or emergency care first.
A coach is not the person to diagnose this, and a good one will say so. Once a clinician has cleared a return, the coach is exactly the right person to rebuild performance from there.
Coming back properly
Returning is a progression, not a date. Pain-free daily movement comes before full training, full training comes before matches, and the athlete should be doing the sport’s hardest demands in training before doing them in competition. Skipping that order is how a first injury becomes a recurring one.
The exercises given for between appointments are where most of the progress happens. A rehabilitation plan followed twice a week at the clinic and ignored at home is a plan that will take much longer.