By Nick Austin – Spear Reporter | Former Spartans wide receiver Justin Lockhart celebrates a touchdown during SJSU’s 42-21 loss to Boise State on Nov. 16. (Photo by Nick Orozco – Spear Photographer)
Injuries have always been linked with playing sports, but the recovery for athletes now vastly differs from 30 years ago.
Strains and sprains are the most common injuries according to Johns Hopkins Medicine post. In some cases, they are the most feared among athletes because of the long recovery process and stigma surrounding sustaining an injury.
With advancements in medical practices over the last 20 years, players have been able to work back from these injuries sooner without the fear of their careers ending.
While the specifics were not made available to the media, San Jose State senior wide receiver Justin Lockhart missed all of the Spartans’ 2023 season with what is believed to be an upper extremity injury. He was able to fully recover before the start of the 2024 season.
It was hard for him being away from the team for so long since he was receiving treatment for his injury in Los Angeles.
“I was definitely more sad than anything,” Lockhart said. “It was supposed to be my last year, we had a lot of big games lined up for that year. But if anything it just helped me focus more.”
His time away was the most he’s ever missed from the game since he first began playing football.
“I didn’t realize how much football impacts most of my life and how much I care about it so it made me just want to work harder for my goals,” Lockhart said.
Lockhart is one of many players that benefited from advancements in the surgical process. Rehab practices now specifically target the injured area of a player with functional and muscle-specific training to get them back on the field sooner.
In the past, when a player would suffer a serious injury like a torn ACL, MCL or Achilles, the overriding thoughts were that it would be career-ending or severely hinder their abilities.
“If we look 15 to 20 years ago, once this injury happened, even without thinking about it people were like ‘I can never come back and play,’ ” director of sports medicine at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Dr. Nirav Pandya said.
The purpose of the surgeries was to allow players to live their lives outside of the game, not to get them back on the field or court again according to Dr. Pandya.
“I think what we’ve seen now over the past several years, it’s a combination of two things. One is the surgery is done much more minimally invasive,” Dr. Pandya said. “Number two is we’re able to start the rehab process a lot sooner.”
This allows the athlete to progress faster and approach recovery more aggressively which allows players to get back to their sport.
The steps behind the rehab process have also seen improvements over the years.
In the past, rehab for a lower-body injury might have just consisted of overall strength training and regaining the players’ mobility in that specific area.
With this approach the player is left at an increased risk of re-injury in that area.
Trainers and doctors have added a final step in the rehab process to build up the functionality of the muscle or ligament that was injured.
If a player suffered a leg injury, the final step would be to make sure the player can cut, land and stop properly with the same force they had before the injury occurred.
This has proven crucial to allow players to regain much or all of their abilities pre-injury.
SJSU head football athletic trainer Kyle Wolff said it’s apparent that the rehab process has taken a big step forward.
“The most common time we see a setback, especially with muscle injuries, is them going back too early,” Wolff said. “So we work really closely with the strength and conditioning staff to put [the athletes] through a proper return protocol.”
While the NFL has reported injuries being down in its league, the NBA has seen an increase in lower body injuries according to a study by PLOS One, a peer-reviewed journal published by the Public Library of Science.
Athletic injuries from youth athletics have also been on the rise according to a UCLA health article on injuries among youth athletes.
“I think it’s a combination of things. I think you are seeing more people get soft-tissue injuries because they’re playing so much more explosively,” Dr. Pandya said. “I think we’re also understanding that you can catch these injuries now. So maybe 20 years ago when you tore something and just no one ever got an MRI on it, you just played.”
Sports medicine has an ever-growing importance in athletes’ lives as it puts them back together when they break down.
In the case of Lockhart, he has been able to play as if he never missed a whole season of football.
“I focused the hardest I ever have on my strength and conditioning,” Lockhart said. “I feel stronger than ever.”
