Sports Injuries Treatment in Harborne, Birmingham

Whether you have pulled a muscle on the back nine at Harborne Golf Club, picked up a hamstring strain playing Sunday league football at the Rec, tweaked your knee on a run through Harborne Walkway, or overdone it at the gym, sports injuries are frustrating. They stop you doing the thing you enjoy, and the longer they drag on, the harder it is to get back to full fitness. We see a lot of sports injuries at Harborne Chiropractic — from weekend warriors who have pushed too hard to competitive athletes who need to recover quickly and safely. The most common sports injuries we treat include muscle strains, ligament sprains, tendon problems, and overuse injuries. A muscle strain happens when fibres are torn through sudden force or overstretching — hamstring strains, calf tears, and groin pulls are classic examples. Ligament sprains affect the joints — ankle sprains, knee ligament injuries, and wrist sprains are common across most sports. Tendon issues like Achilles tendinopathy and tennis elbow develop more gradually, usually from repetitive loading without adequate recovery. Overuse injuries are particularly common in runners and anyone who has increased their training volume too quickly. Shin splints, iliotibial band syndrome, plantar fasciitis, and stress reactions all fall into this category. The common thread is that the body has been asked to do more than it was prepared for, and the tissues have not had time to adapt. If you have been trying to train through an injury, or resting and hoping it will sort itself out, neither approach tends to work well. Training through it usually makes it worse. Complete rest allows the tissue to heal but does nothing to address why the injury happened in the first place, which means it often comes back when you return to activity. What works is accurate diagnosis, targeted treatment, and a structured return to sport. That is what we do.

  • Acute pain during or after sport
  • Swelling or bruising around a joint or muscle
  • Reduced range of motion in the affected area
  • Recurring injury that keeps coming back
  • Pain that gets worse during activity
  • Weakness or instability in a joint

How We Treat Sports Injuries

Assessment & Diagnosis

Accurate diagnosis is the foundation of effective sports injury treatment. We carry out a thorough clinical examination using orthopaedic and functional tests to identify exactly which structure is injured and how severely. If we suspect a fracture, significant ligament tear, or other injury requiring imaging, we refer for X-ray, ultrasound, or MRI. Getting the diagnosis right at the start means treatment is targeted and recovery time is minimised.

Manual Therapy

Hands-on treatment including joint mobilisation, soft tissue massage, trigger point therapy, and spinal adjustment where relevant. Manual therapy reduces pain, improves joint movement, and accelerates tissue healing by increasing blood flow to the injured area. For acute injuries, treatment is gentle and focused on reducing inflammation and pain. For chronic or overuse injuries, we work more aggressively on tissue restrictions and movement patterns.

Rehabilitation Programme

A progressive, personalised exercise programme that takes you from early-stage recovery through to full function. We start with simple movements to maintain range of motion, progress to strengthening exercises under increasing load, and then introduce sport-specific drills that prepare you for return to play. Every exercise is demonstrated in clinic and progressed at each appointment based on how you are responding. This is the part of treatment that most determines your long-term outcome.

Return-to-Sport Plan

Getting out of pain is not the same as being ready to play. We design a structured return-to-sport plan that gradually reintroduces the demands of your activity — running volume, change of direction, contact, competition intensity. This staged approach significantly reduces the risk of re-injury, which is highest in the first few weeks after returning to sport. We also address any underlying weaknesses or movement patterns that contributed to the original injury.

Injury Prevention

Once you are back to full activity, we help you stay there. We identify risk factors for future injury — strength imbalances, flexibility deficits, training load errors, poor movement patterns — and give you a maintenance programme to address them. Prevention is always better than treatment, and a few targeted exercises done consistently can dramatically reduce your injury risk. We also advise on training load management, warm-up routines, and recovery strategies.

What to Expect

Your first appointment for a sports injury takes 45 minutes. We start by understanding exactly what happened — when the injury occurred, what you felt at the time, how it has behaved since, and what activities make it better or worse. We also ask about your training history, your sport, your goals, and any previous injuries, because these all affect how we treat you and what your recovery looks like. The physical examination is thorough. We assess the injured area directly — testing range of motion, strength, stability, and tissue integrity. We also look at the areas above and below the injury, because a knee problem might be driven by hip weakness, and a shoulder injury might relate to thoracic spine stiffness. Understanding the full picture means we can treat the cause, not just the symptoms. After the examination, we explain what we have found, give you a clear diagnosis, and outline a treatment plan. This includes an honest estimate of recovery time — we do not give you false hope, but we also do not make it sound worse than it is. Treatment typically starts on the same day. Depending on the injury, this might include soft tissue work, joint mobilisation, taping or strapping, and initial rehabilitation exercises. In the follow-up sessions, we progress your rehabilitation systematically. We increase the load, complexity, and sport-specific demands as the tissue heals. This is not generic physiotherapy — we design the rehab around your actual sport and your actual goals. If you play golf, we work on rotation and stability. If you run, we work on loading capacity and running mechanics. Most sports injuries we treat take around 6 sessions, though acute muscle strains may resolve faster and chronic tendon problems may take longer. We give you a clear timeline after the first assessment.

1

Initial assessment — 45 minutes

2

Treatment begins in your first appointment

3

Ongoing plan — most patients need 6 sessions

Common Questions About Sports Injuries

How soon after a sports injury should I see a chiropractor?
As soon as possible, ideally within the first few days. Early assessment means we can give you an accurate diagnosis, start appropriate treatment, and advise you on what to do (and what not to do) in the first critical days of healing. For acute injuries like muscle strains and ligament sprains, the first 48 to 72 hours are important — how you manage the injury in this window affects recovery time. We typically have same-week availability and can often see you the next day. If your injury involves severe pain, inability to bear weight, visible deformity, or significant swelling, go to A&E first to rule out fracture. For everything else — strains, sprains, overuse injuries, pain that came on during or after exercise — book in with us and we will assess it properly. The sooner we see you, the sooner you can start recovering.
Should I use ice or heat on a sports injury?
For the first 48 to 72 hours after an acute injury, ice can help manage pain and reduce excessive swelling. Apply an ice pack wrapped in a towel for 10 to 15 minutes every 2 to 3 hours. Do not apply ice directly to skin. After the initial acute phase, the evidence is more nuanced than the traditional RICE protocol suggests. Complete rest and prolonged icing can actually slow healing by reducing the blood flow that delivers nutrients to the injured tissue. Current best practice follows the PEACE and LOVE framework — Protection, Elevation, Avoid anti-inflammatories, Compression, Education in the early stage, then Load, Optimism, Vascularisation, and Exercise in the recovery stage. In practical terms, gentle movement within pain limits is usually better than complete rest after the first couple of days. Heat can be useful for muscle tightness and chronic issues. The honest answer is that it depends on your specific injury, and we will give you clear guidance at your appointment.
How long will it take to recover from a sports injury?
Recovery time depends entirely on the type and severity of the injury. Mild muscle strains typically resolve in 2 to 4 weeks with appropriate treatment. Moderate ligament sprains take 4 to 8 weeks. Tendon problems, particularly chronic tendinopathy, can take 3 to 6 months to fully resolve because tendon tissue heals and remodels slowly. Stress fractures require 6 to 8 weeks minimum. We give you an honest, specific estimate after your first assessment — not a vague "it depends." Recovery time also depends on how quickly you start treatment, how consistent you are with your rehabilitation exercises, and whether you follow the return-to-sport plan or rush back too early. Patients who engage fully with the rehabilitation process consistently recover faster and with fewer setbacks. We review your progress at every appointment and adjust the timeline if needed.
Can you treat running injuries?
Yes, running injuries are one of the most common categories we treat. Runner's knee (patellofemoral pain), iliotibial band syndrome, Achilles tendinopathy, shin splints, plantar fasciitis, and hip pain are all conditions we see regularly. Running injuries are almost always overuse injuries — they develop when the training load exceeds the tissue's capacity to adapt. This might mean you increased your mileage too quickly, changed your shoes, started running on a different surface, or returned to running after a break without building back up gradually. Treatment involves addressing the immediate pain and tissue irritation, identifying and correcting the biomechanical or training factors that caused the problem, and designing a progressive return-to-running programme. We work with runners of all levels across Birmingham — from people training for their first parkrun at Cannon Hill to experienced marathon runners. We understand that telling a runner to stop running is rarely helpful advice, so we modify your training rather than stopping it entirely wherever possible.
Do I need to stop exercising while being treated?
Not necessarily, and usually not completely. Total rest is rarely the best approach for sports injuries beyond the first few days. The injured tissue needs loading to heal properly — but the right type and amount of loading matters. We assess what activities you can safely continue and which you need to modify or temporarily avoid. For example, a runner with Achilles tendinopathy might switch to cycling temporarily while doing specific Achilles loading exercises. A footballer with a hamstring strain might continue upper body gym work while the hamstring heals. A golfer with back pain might reduce their round length temporarily rather than stopping entirely. We design your treatment and rehabilitation around maintaining as much fitness and activity as possible while allowing the injury to heal. Complete detraining makes the return to sport harder and increases the risk of re-injury when you restart.
How much does sports injury treatment cost?
Your first appointment is £55, which includes a full 45-minute assessment, diagnosis, and initial treatment. Follow-up sessions are £43. Most sports injuries need around 6 sessions, though straightforward muscle strains may resolve in 3 to 4 and complex tendon or ligament injuries may need more. We give you a clear estimate after your first assessment so there are no surprises. We accept health insurance from BUPA, AXA, Vitality, Aviva, and other major providers. Sports injuries are typically covered under musculoskeletal physiotherapy or chiropractic benefits — check with your insurer and get an authorisation number before your first appointment. Many of our patients in Harborne and across Birmingham find that investing in proper treatment and rehabilitation saves them money in the long run compared to repeat GP visits, painkillers, and prolonged time away from sport.
Dr Guy Falco

Your Practitioner

Dr Guy Falco

MChiro, DC, GCC Registered

Guy has a strong interest in sports injury treatment and rehabilitation. He treats athletes and active individuals across all sports, from recreational runners and golfers to competitive club players. Guy combines chiropractic treatment with evidence-based rehabilitation, designing return-to-sport programmes that get patients back to full activity safely. He is a keen sportsman himself and understands the frustration of being sidelined by injury.

What Patients Say

Tore my calf muscle playing football at the weekend and Dr Falco saw me on the Monday. He diagnosed it accurately, started treatment immediately, and had me back playing within five weeks with a full rehab programme. Really impressed with the structured approach — it was not just about the pain, it was about getting me match-fit.

Chris M. ★★★★★

I had been struggling with a persistent golf elbow for months — tried rest, tried a brace, tried exercises from YouTube. Nothing worked properly. Four sessions at Harborne Chiropractic and the right exercises finally sorted it. Back playing at Harborne Golf Club without pain. Wish I had come earlier.

Steve R. ★★★★★

Training for the Birmingham Half Marathon and developed knee pain that was getting worse with every run. Dr Falco identified weak glutes and poor running mechanics as the root cause. He treated the knee and gave me a strengthening programme. Completed the half marathon pain-free. Excellent treatment.

Laura T. ★★★★★

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Same-week appointments available. No GP referral needed.

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