DECENT the many advances in recent years in sports science and the treatment of injuries, the fact remains that if you play sport, injuries happen.

However, increasing your understanding of these injuries is one really simple way of reducing the risk they pose to you.

Over the next few weeks in this column you'll learn about the top five injuries that are likely to occur on a football field and discover simple ways to try to prevent them from happening to you or your players.

The information revealed is quite simply some of the most interesting and useful I could possibly give you and as a player or a coach, will help you make more informed decisions and hopefully stay on the pitch for longer.

As a footballer, you're more likely to suffer an injury than any other sports person and your injury risk is higher in competitive matches rather than training.

To be even more specific, the critical times for an injury to occur are the first 20 minutes and the last 20 minutes of a game. This is the reason you need a thorough warm up and why you will see many professional players substituted with 20 minutes to go when they first return from injury and one which I always encourage my patients to follow despite their eagerness to play a full 90 minutes. You should too.

Most football injuries are likely to affect your lower limb, basically from the hip downwards and they are caused mainly by a collision or a bad tackle, or jumping and landing awkwardly.

This bit is really important: The overall likelihood of an injury increases the older you are. There are approximately 35 injuries per 1,000 hours of football in adults across the North-East, and only a maximum of 13 injuries for 1,000 hours of football for adolescents.

Are you involved with a female team? If so then you need to be even more aware of ways to reduce injury as statistically you are more likely to be injured than your male counter parts.

Now you're aware of the stats, we can look at the injuries they are largely made up from.

The fifth most common injury likely to happen to you on a football field is an anterior cruciate ligament tear.

You will commonly here it referred to quite simply as an ACL injury and has happened to some of the games greatest players from Alan Shearer to Michael Owen. More locally, James Brown at Hartlepool United and, one of the best players I was lucky enough to work with, Middlesbrough captain Matthew Bates have both fallen victim on more than one occasion.

The first thing I want to stress to you if this does or has happened, is that it does not have to be the end of your playing career no matter what your age or level of ability.

Although quite a serious injury, it is highly likely that you can return to a playing field with successful surgery.

Whether you're a player, a parent or a coach, read next week's article if you want to know how to reduce the risk of this injury happening and also discover an insight into the life of a professional footballer recovering from the surgery that is nearly always required with this type of injury.

If you are worried about an ACL injury, feel free to contact me directly for advice paul@paulgoughphysio.com