By Janice Tai

Both golf champion Tiger Woods and soccer star Michael Owen had it.

No, not a cupboardful of sports trophies, but a common knee ligament injury called anterior cruciate ligament injury.

As more Singaporeans are now active in sports, they should be aware of the precautions to take for preventing sports injuries.

Warming up and cooling down after exercise is a good way to prevent sports injuries.

Nevertheless, in spite of taking these and other precautions, injuries still do occur at times.

Dr Tan Jee Lim, an orthopaedic surgeon at JL Sports Medicine & Surgery, said that injuries that require medical attention are:

• Those where pain and swelling persist for more than three days;
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•  Those that result in instability of a joint, indicating that a ligament has been torn;
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• Significant injuries that incapacitate a person, for example, a shoulder dislocation.

Ligaments are bands of fibrous tissue that surround joints and bind them together.

For instance, a common knee injury is one which affects the anterior cruciate ligament. In this injury, the knee is unstable because the anterior cruciate ligament, one of the four major ligaments of the knee, is torn.

These tears are caused by sports that require frequent stops and starts like basketball and soccer.

Such injuries are best treated by surgery.

Shoulder injuries are common in overhead sports like swimming and baseball.

One of the most common shoulder injuries is shoulder impingement.

This is caused when tendons (the tissue by which a muscle is attached to the bone) in the narrow space between bones in the shoulder joint are compressed due to the lack of space. This compression is due to a bony growth called bone spur that arises from wear and tear.

Symptoms include a sore shoulder and difficulty in lifting the hand above shoulder level.

The treatment for this is physiotherapy.

Dr Tan said that Singaporeans tend to self-treat and go for acupuncture and massages without finding out the exact nature of their injury.

It is important to have a medical diagnosis to get the right treatment, he advised.

He added: "Before embarking on a sport, learn it from a certified coach. Get proper instructions and the appropriate equipment."

jantai@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in Mind Your Body, The Straits Times.