Sport helps us to strengthen our immune system and improves our brain performance. It prevents diseases such as cancer, rheumatism, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. It keeps us fit and burns calories. But sometimes, sport even makes us sick. Either because you didn’t drink enough, you overexert yourself, or you get hurt. Sometimes, you spend the rest of the week in the hospital. Only because you wanted to stay healthy. Handball is known for sprints, fast direction changes, jumps, ruff contacts, hard throws and deep falls. In this article, I will explain the most common injuries that occur in handball.

Handball is a sport in which the shoulders are exposed to a high load. The constant passes and throws require strong and mobile shoulders. Otherwise, there is a high chance of getting an injury. But of course, the shoulders are not the only body part, that can sustain an injury. There are your back, your fingers, your head and more.

Finger injuries:
When you watch handball, you will notice, that many players have tape around their fingers. When I was young, I thought they do it to have a better grip. But when I got older, I could feel in my own body, that it is because of finger injuries. Anyone who plays a ball sport knows the pain when a ball hits your outstretched fingers. You have a pain, that feels like your finger is broken and sometimes, that is also the case. But even more often, it is a capsular rupture. The finger begins to swell and turns blue and green. As long as the swelling is not too big and you can bend and straighten the finger after a short while, it is not necessary to see a doctor. In case the finger is not broken, you should outstretch your finger as well as the wrist, to get rid of the swelling. You can continue your training step by step. Professional players do not stop training only because of a sprained finger. That is, why they sometimes have tape around all ten fingers.

Concussion:
High jumps lead to deep falls. Normally, that is no problem. But if someone pushes you while you are in the air, you lose control, might land on your head and suffer a concussion. All head injuries are first classified as dangerous. Some symptoms of a concussion are headaches, dizziness, problems balancing, glassy eyes, confusion and double vision. In case, that an athlete has one or more symptoms, he should see a doctor and should be under supervision for the next 24 hours. He should not start training again until he either has no more symptoms or has been given the okay by a Doctor. In case you were unconscious or don’t remember the fall, you should get imaging of your head to make sure, you don’t have any more serious injuries like brain hemorrhage.

Tear ligaments:
Any sport that involves running carries the risk of ligament rupture. Some sports more and others less. Because of the sudden direction changes, unexpected contacts and uncontrolled landings, the risk in handball is quite high. One twist of the ankle is enough to seriously injure the ligament in the ankle or knee. This injury can end your career before it even began. Surgeries, followed by a splint and rehabilitation. The progress of healing takes months before you can start simple jogging again. In some cases, contact sport is not possible anymore. To prevent that kind of injury, it is very important to have a good warm up and stretch, before every training and game, as well as using good shoes.

Back pain:
Last but not least, we have the most common injury. Not only athletes, but more than 80% have back pain in their everyday life. Most of the time, the cause of back pain is unknown. But sometimes, the reason for the pain is a fall, a kick or a sprain. All of this is not unlikely in handball.

The worst injuries in handball history
March 30th,1979. In the semifinal of the 1979 European Cup, Gummersbach (Germany) against Banyasz Tatabanya (Hungary), Joachim Deckarm collided with Lajos Panovics and fell with his head on the ground. At that time, the gym floors were still made of concrete and only covered with a thin layer of PVC. Joachim Deckarm was unconscious and fell into a coma. His teammates were crying in the dressing room and thought their friend was going to die. After 131 days he woke up from the coma and was since then a nursing case. With the help of his former coach, he had to learn to eat, speak and walk again. He got his incredible willpower from his coach and the motto, ‘I can, I will, I must’.

In 2001, Johann Pettersson, who was the goalkeeper of Gummersbach, left his goalkeeper zone to prevent a counter attack. Unfortunately, he collided with another player, both watching the ball. While the other player was not hurt, Johann Pettersson lost consciousness. “He lost three teeth on impact, swallowed his tongue and was unconscious. We gave him IV fluids to help with the seizures
and a tracheotomy was not necessary. Nevertheless, he was briefly in danger of losing his life,” reported THW team doctor Detlev Brandecker. The first aid took place on the parquet floor. After a few months, he was able to continue his handball career but ended it a little later and started a career as a coach instead.

As you can see, handball is not a sport in which injuries are uncommon. Nevertheless, injuries like those two are very unlikely to happen and can also happen in most other sports. I hope you liked the article and can still enjoy a nice game of handball.