While football is one of the most popular and enjoyable sports to play, as with a lot of sports, there are downsides that come with it.
That being the existence of injury, which unfortunately the majority of footballers experience either at one point or another in their career or consistently throughout.
Now with injuries, it tends to mean that a player is out of action for a set amount of time. Sometimes, it can be for a day or two, while it can take 1-2 years out of your playing career in other cases.
So, as a result, a lot of footballers want to know how they can eliminate some of the risks of becoming injured so that they can play for longer.
In this post, I will discuss whether football boots can cause injury and whether or not you should go with certain ones to give you a better chance at not getting injured.
Table of Contents
How Do Injuries In Football Occur?
What is important to understand is that regardless of the football boots you wear, injuries will happen, as it’s, unfortunately, a part of the game.
All the top professional footballers deal with injuries, despite having the best footwear available to them.
While these people play football for a job, it tells you that no matter what boots you wear, that it’s impossible to eliminate the risk completely of getting injured.
Football injuries occur because of how high intensity the sport is.
Since players are often required to sprint short distances and to go into challenges with the opponents, it’s only normal that injuries happen.
Reasons for injuries occurring includes overstretching/overusing your muscles, not warming up or cooling down fully, having weak muscles, etc.
So they will naturally occur, but saying that there are steps you can follow to help you look after yourself more and prevent some injuries from happening.
Can Football Boots Cause Injuries?
Football boots can definitely cause injury, especially if you are not wearing the right footwear.
If you’re getting injured because you have boots on that aren’t for you, you are unnecessarily increasing the risk of being on the sidelines.
So you do need to take some care when it comes to choosing football boots, as I consider it an important step in the process, which not only helps with your performance on the pitch but will help you play for longer.
In this section, I will look at what can cause injury with your football boots and what you can do to help yourself.
The Correct Soleplate
In previous posts, I have talked about the importance of having the right soleplate.
It’s key because if your football boots have been made for a surface different from what you’re planning on using them on, you will have issues with the grip and traction.
To give you an example, firm ground and artificial grass football boots are fairly similar because they have moulded studs.
However, the configuration is different because they are each made for one surface specifically.
So you don’t want to use firm ground football boots on an artificial surface and vice versa because they aren’t optimized for it, which can cause you injury.
Wearing the wrong boots can cause you to slip or get stuck on the surface, which could result in an ACL or a fractured ankle.
Toe Injuries
Toe injuries are a common injury of those who aren’t wearing the correct football boots.
This can happen when you’re wearing a pair of football boots that are too small for you, which results in your toes curling up.
When you strike the ball, you can cause damage because you aren’t hitting the football properly.
This is an injury that can be prevented fairly easily, and this is all by making sure that you choose the right size when going to buy football boots.
When trying them on, you should know straight away if they are either too big or small, so if they happen to be one of the two, either go up or down a size.
You can also check out this list of sturdy football boots that are great for toe protection too.
Does Football Boots Really Matter?
Now, as I have touched upon, most professional footballers have sponsorship deals which means they will have the right and latest boots.
But while having the right boots certainly helps lower that risk of getting injured, it won’t remove it completely.
Football boots that are released nowadays go through a lot of testing to make sure that they only help you on the pitch.
This means as long as you have gone with the right size and ground type, the boots shouldn’t serve you any problems, only helping you on the pitch.
In my opinion, the main focus should be on what you do before and after football matches.
Making sure that your muscles have been warmed up properly before a game is crucial.
I can’t tell you the number of times I have skipped the warm-up out of laziness and then found my hamstring pull in a game.
Other areas to concentrate on are making sure to get good rest before football, having the right diet, and making sure you cool down after games.
Conclusion
As you can see, while football boots are still important, its other areas that play a bigger role in preventing injuries.
Making sure you look after yourself and that you put your body first is how you increase your chances of playing not only most weeks but for years to come.
If you have any questions on football injuries or any stories to share, do feel free to share them in the comments section below 🙂
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