Fear of returning to sport after an injury: the psychologist speaks

Francesco Palma

December 24th

Coming back from an injury is never easy, not just from a physical point of view. Often we don’t consider how important the psychological aspect is during the recovery process, up until the return to sporting activity. The doctor Valentina Penatisports psychologist and mental coach, explained to Gazette Active what are the dynamics that are activated when an athlete is subject to injuries, focusing in particular on the feat accomplished by Sofia Goggia in St. Moritz, who won the downhill on Sunday despite a fractured and bleeding hand.

The three evaluation criteria

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To understand how to set up a mental recovery process, we need to consider some fundamental criteria: “First of all, we need to make a distinction. Sometimes an injury can feel like a traumait happens especially when the accident is particularly violent, with a massive blood loss or loss of consciousness. These are those injuries that have a traumatic value and require a long elaboration of the experience, but clearly these are more extreme cases. For the most common injuries we consider instead three factors essential for the athlete’s psychological recovery. The first is the extent of the injuryi.e. how serious it is. The second is the district affected by the accident: if a marathon runner breaks his wrist that’s one thing, if a tennis player breaks his wrist clearly everything becomes much more complicated. In the end, the level of experience of the athlete: it is clear that an amateur will have to follow very different processes compared to a professional, who has a different urgency to return” explains the doctor.

the feat of sofia goggia

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That of Sofia Goggia is a very particular case, which obviously deserves a space of its own, but which in any case is connected to the 3 previously mentioned criteria: “Certainly one of the criteria we have described before must be considered, that of the body district subject to the problem: A knee or ankle injury would have been very different to handle than a hand injury. Certainly that fear of pain and of falling on the hand that has just been operated on remainsbut it wasn’t a totally disabling injury, which would have prevented her from taking to the track, despite her physiological fear of crash. Probably in the case of Goggia three mechanisms were triggered: first of all the ‘hunger’ to win accompanied by a great motivation, then the complete trust in the staff who supported her and gave her the go-ahead, thus giving her the right confidence to get on track and to be able to do it, finally the ‘hit’ of adrenaline and the will to do a business that helped her manage the pain in a different way. The sense of challenge has had a big impact. If we think of the Giant who competed the day after, the adrenaline had passed and she was already more restrained and cautious, a humanly normal thing when approaching the race after an injury”.

The fear of going back to playing sports

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Clearly, not everyone is Sofia Goggia. There are many different factors to consider, as Dr. Penati explains: “Every athlete has their own story and perception – continues the doctor -, there is often a ‘non-trust’ in the damaged body area. The orthopedist, the physiotherapist and all the other doctors tell me that I’m fine, that I have nothing left, but I don’t trust them. There is still an etched memory of the pain or frustration of the time you stood still. A very gradual recovery process is necessary”. There is a particular case, in this sense, also in the world of professional football, described by Carlo Ancelotti in his book “I prefer the cup”, where he described the difficulties of Massimo Ambrosini coming back from an injury, to the point of feeling pain even though the problem had been completely resolved: “These are very common cases. I am reminded of a patient who tore her ligaments a few months ago, and now she’s back to snowboarding: once this girl got back on the board, she felt a sensation of extreme fear, she began to stiffen until she overbalanced and fell again. In these cases you have to start over from the basics, perhaps be followed by a master for a few hours to rediscover the right security and confidence, even if you are already very good”.