Sports injuries are injuries that happen to athletes participating in sporting events.

In many cases, these types of injuries are due to overuse of a part of the body.

For example, runner's knee is a painful condition associated with running, while tennis elbow is a form of repetitive stress injury at the elbow.

Other types of injuries, such as a broken bone, can be caused by hard contact with something.

Injuries are a common occurrence in professional sports, and most teams have a staff of trainers and close connections to the medical community.

Controversy has arisen at times when teams have made decisions that could threaten a player's long-term health for short-term gain.

Sports injuries can be classified as either traumatic or overuse injuries.

Traumatic injuries account for most injuries in contact sports such as soccer, rugby and American football.

This is of course due to the dynamic and high collision nature of these games.

These injuries range from bruises and muscle strains to fractures and head injuries.

A bruise is damage to small blood vessels which causes bleeding within the tissues.

A muscle strain is a small tear of muscle fibers and a ligament sprain is a small tear of ligament tissue.

The body's response to these injuries is the same in the initial five-day period immediately following the incident - inflammation.

Inflammation is characterized by pain, localized swelling, heat, redness and a loss of function.

Inflammation is the first phase of healing, and typically lasts for around five days.

However, too much of an inflammatory response can mean that the healing process will take longer and a return to activity is delayed.

Sports injury treatments are intended to minimize the inflammatory phase of an injury so that the overall healing process is accelerated.