Soft Tissue Injuries All Year? Use Your Preseason to Prepare Differently
If hamstring, calf, quad or groin injuries have repeatedly interrupted your season, it can be tempting to simply rest once the season finishes and hope that next year will be different.
Rest may be useful after a long season, particularly if you are sore or carrying niggles. But if you have had recurring soft-tissue injuries, the period before your club preseason also provides something that can be difficult to find during the season:
Time to work on your physical capacity.
Rather than waiting until team preseason begins, this period can be used to progressively develop your strength and conditioning and prepare for the higher-speed running demands of your sport.
Preseason preparation isn't just about endurance
When athletes think about getting fit for football, soccer and other field sports, the first thought is often running.
And usually, lots of it.
Building an aerobic base can certainly be part of preseason preparation, but field sports don't only require you to run at comfortable speeds.
During training and competition you may need to:
accelerate
decelerate
change direction
repeatedly produce high-intensity efforts
sprint or run at higher speeds
tolerate these demands when fatigued.
If your preparation consists almost entirely of slower running, you may be improving one component of fitness without adequately preparing for some of the higher-intensity demands you will encounter.
High-speed running needs to be prepared for
High-speed running places substantial demands on the body, including the hamstrings.
That doesn't mean high-speed running should simply be avoided.
In fact, if your sport requires you to sprint, at some stage your preparation needs to expose you appropriately to higher speeds.
The important word is appropriately.
Research examining high-speed running and injury in soccer suggests that sudden increases in high-speed or sprint exposure relative to an athlete's recent training may be associated with injury. However, the evidence is complex, and researchers have not identified a universal amount of high-speed running that becomes "dangerous".
The practical takeaway isn't that sprinting causes injuries.
It's that athletes should be progressively prepared for the demands they are going to face.
Strength training matters too
Running isn't the only component of physical preparation.
A structured strength program can help develop the physical qualities required for your sport.
For an athlete with a history of soft-tissue injuries, this may involve strengthening the muscle groups that are repeatedly exposed to high forces during training and competition.
The exact program should depend on the athlete rather than simply giving everyone the same collection of "injury prevention" exercises.
For hamstrings specifically, there is good evidence supporting eccentric strengthening.
Research across sporting populations has found that injury-prevention programs incorporating the Nordic hamstring exercise can substantially reduce hamstring injury rates.
But that doesn't mean doing Nordics alone makes an athlete injury-proof.
Strengthening should form part of a broader program that considers the athlete's previous injuries, current capacity, running exposure and the specific demands of their sport.
Had the same injury more than once?
Previous injury is particularly relevant.
A systematic review examining risk factors for hamstring strain found that a previous hamstring injury was one of the stronger identified risk factors for another hamstring injury.
That doesn't mean another injury is inevitable.
But it does provide a good reason not to ignore a recurring problem simply because the symptoms disappear once the season finishes.
If you had repeated hamstring problems this year, for example, preseason gives you an opportunity to ask:
What haven't we adequately rebuilt or prepared?
That might involve strength.
It might involve high-speed running capacity.
It might involve overall conditioning.
Or there may be several factors that need addressing.
Don't wait for club preseason to do everything
One of the difficulties athletes face is that organised preseason can be relatively short.
Your club may need to develop fitness, football skills, structures and match preparation within a limited period.
If you arrive having done very little for several months, you're asking preseason to rebuild a lot of physical capacity in a relatively short period.
You don't need to arrive at the first preseason session at peak fitness.
That's not the goal.
Instead, aim to arrive with an appropriate base of strength and conditioning that allows you to build as preseason progresses.
What could your preparation include?
There isn't one program that is appropriate for every athlete.
Depending on your sport, injury history and current capacity, your program may include a combination of:
Strength training - Developing the strength and physical capacity required for your sport.
Aerobic conditioning - Maintaining or developing the endurance required to repeatedly perform throughout training and competition.
Higher-intensity running - Progressively introducing faster running rather than leaving your first exposure to high speed until team training.
Sport-specific preparation - Gradually moving towards the running, acceleration, deceleration and change-of-direction demands you are likely to encounter.
Rehabilitation of previous injuries - Using the additional time available during the off-season to properly address problems that affected you during the year.
The relative importance of each will be different for every athlete.
Use this preseason differently
If you've spent another season moving from one soft-tissue injury to the next, don't simply repeat exactly the same preparation and expect a different outcome.
You can't eliminate all sporting injuries.
But you can use the time before your season to improve the physical qualities your sport requires.
Build your strength.
Develop your conditioning.
Progressively expose yourself to higher-speed running.
And work on the problems that repeatedly affected you during the previous season.
The goal isn't to be at your absolute peak before preseason starts.
It's to arrive prepared enough to make the most of preseason.
Need help preparing for preseason?
At Body Fit Physiotherapy in North Adelaide, we work with footballers, soccer players and other athletes to assess their current capacity, previous injuries and sporting demands.
From there, we can develop an individualised rehabilitation or strength and conditioning program to help prepare for the demands of the upcoming season.
The aim isn't simply to train harder. It's to identify what you need to work on and progressively prepare your body for your sport.
References
van Dyk N, Behan FP, Whiteley R. Including the Nordic hamstring exercise in injury prevention programmes halves the rate of hamstring injuries: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 8459 athletes. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2019;53:1362–1370.
Ishøi L, et al. Diagnosis, prevention and treatment of common lower extremity muscle injuries in sport – grading the evidence: a statement paper commissioned by the Danish Society of Sports Physical Therapy. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2020;54:528–537.
Green B, et al. Recalibrating the risk of hamstring strain injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis of risk factors for index and recurrent hamstring strain injury in sport. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2020;54:1081–1088.
High-speed running and injury risk in soccer: a systematic review. 2026.
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