Background
Athletic groin pain is a common issue in sports that involve sprinting, kicking, and rapid changes of direction (cutting) such as football, rugby, and GAA. It accounts for 9.4% of all injuries in Gaelic football according to Baida et al 2021. It can develop suddenly following a specific incident or, more commonly, gradually over time due to repeated stress on the structures around the pelvis and hip.
Athletic groin pain is an umbrella term that encompasses adductor related groin pain, osteitis pubis, inguinal groin pain and iliopsoas related groin pain. Diagnosing athletic groin pain can be challenging because several structures in the region can produce similar symptoms. One or all of the above structures could be contributing to the pain. To book an assessment click here.
Causes
Running, cutting, kicking, and sprinting require the trunk, pelvis, hips, and lower limbs to coordinate efficiently. When one part of this system is not functioning optimally, another region may compensate and become overloaded. Over time, this increased load can contribute to pain in the groin area, overloading the anatomical structures in the groin area. In other words, it develops when the load placed on the groin structures exceeds their ability to tolerate it.
Sudden increases in training intensity, reduced strength in the adductors, or poor coordination between the trunk, pelvis, and hips or a more distal injury can all be common factors which lead to overload of the groin.
Diagnosis
A thorough assessment is essential to determine the primary source of pain and any contributing movement patterns or weaknesses that may be overloading the groin.
Clinical diagnosis typically includes a detailed history of symptoms, examination of hip range of motion, strength testing, and functional movement assessment. Specific tests may reproduce pain during resisted adduction squeeze tests, abdominal activation tests, and the crossover test for athletic groin pain.
Athletic groin pain is often classified into categories as mentioned in the background section of this blog. In some cases, imaging such as MRI or ultrasound may be used to support the diagnosis, although many cases can be accurately identified through clinical examination. Involvement of a Sports medicine consultant may be necessary in complex cases. To book an assessment click here.
Treatment
As the structures around the groin are overloaded, a period of time off activities like running, jumping and cutting is often needed. This time allows pain and inflammation to settle.
In the meantime, Physiotherapy can begin with a focused rehab plan that strengthens the areas around the hip and groin while improving movement strategies. It is important that rehab does not cause pain in any way. As this would be continuing to overload the painful structures. To an assessment and put a structured rehab plan in place click here or call us on 045-866075.
Oisin Kelly is a Chartered Physiotherapist with an MSc in Sports Medicine