Understanding Sports Hernia in Hockey Players
There are different types of hernia – inguinal and umbilical are tears in the abdominal wall that will often include a bulge where the contents of the abdominal cavity can squeeze out (kinda gross I know).
Then there is what is referred to as the sports hernia which is also a tear in the lower abdominal wall, but there is not usually a bulge. Here is where the sports hernia is different, it will typically start with a groin injury or groin pain and develops over time from there.
So how does an injury move from the groin (or adductors) up to the lower abdominals? The answer is that it does not actually move from one location to the other. The injury in the groin leads to a secondary result of a change in the way an athlete uses their hip joint after groin injury.
Is The Injury Healed When The Pain Is Gone?
The goal of most hockey players (and some of their therapists) after groin injury is to make the pain stop. No pain = No injury right? Wrong.