Unit 7 Sport injuries Task 1 Discuss in pairs. What questions would an interesting lecture/ article on sports injuries cover? Task 2 Read the text on sports injuries. Which of them do you associate with your sport(s)? More than 10 million sports injuries occur each year. Most sports injuries are due to either traumatic injury or overuse of muscles or joints. Wounds A wound is any break in the skin or body surface. Cuts can be caused by sharp edges such as jewellery or stones. When the skin is cut, the blood vessels at the wound edges are cut straight across, so blood loss is very likely. Grazes are wounds in which the top layers of skin are scraped off. Grazes are commonly caused by a sliding fall (trip on a running track) or friction burn (hands sliding along a rope). Bone injuries A fracture is a break or crack in the bone. Bones can break when a direct impact is received (hockey stick striking the shin) or indirect force is produced by a twist or a wrench (a trip or stumble). Joint/Muscle Injuries Sprain Injury to a ligament at, or near, a joint. It is often the result of a sudden or unexpected wrenching movement at the joint that pulls the bones within the joint too far apart and tears the tissues surrounding the joint. Strain Overstretching of the muscle, which may result in a partial tearing. Deep bruising (soft tissue injury) These injuries are usually accompanied by bleeding into the damaged area, which can lead to pain and swelling. Rupture Complete tearing of the muscle, which may occur in the fleshy part or in the tendon. Heat Exhaustion Heat exhaustion, an advanced condition of hyperthermia, is very common in marathon runners; especially in hot, humid conditions. The body temperature rises, which makes blood rush to the skin to cool it down. This makes less blood available to the working muscles and so extreme tiredness, breathlessness and dizziness occurs. Unconsciousness Unconsciousness occurs from an interruption of the brain’s activity. Shock The circulatory system distributes blood round the body, so that oxygen and nutrients can be fed into the tissues. When the system fails, circulatory shock will develop. If not treated immediately, vital organs such as the brain may fail. A typical cause of shock is a blow to the chest (winding). Symptoms include: cold and pale skin, shaking or chills, chest pain, a weak but rapid pulse, shallow breathing, dizziness or general weakness, vomiting, unconsciousness. Test your knowledge of injuries. Mark the following statements True (T) or False (F). 1. A wound where the top layers of skin are scraped off is called a rupture. 2. Both sprains and strains affect muscles. 3. Hypothermia occurs when the body is exposed to excessive heat. 4. A player who is winded and knocked to the ground could go into shock. 5. Shock occurs when blood pressure drops and the organs do not receive enough blood. T/F T/F T/F T/F T/F Task 3 Vocabulary Complete the sentences with the words below. bleed scar concussion minor pain swollen blister bruise scratched wound sprained 1. My ankle is very…………. 2. Do you ………………… easily? 3. I´ve …………………. my wrist. 4. This ……………. was caused by flying glass. 5. The ……………….will disappear in a few days. 6. The operation only left a small ………………. 7. Look where the cat …………………. me. 8. His injuries are all fairly…………………. 9. Are you in…………………….? Do you need an Aspirin? 10. I´ve got a terrible……………………on my foot. 11. He lost consciousness as a result of a blow to the head and was taken to hospital with ……… Task 4 Grammar and reading A) Complete the gaps with the correct forms of the verbs in brackets. Petra Kvitova: ‘I’ll never forget the attack but I’m trying to love my new hand’ Exclusive by Claire Bloomfield, Sat 16 Dec 2017, The Guardian The grisly details of the terrifying knife attack that …………… (turn) Petra Kvitova’s life upside down almost exactly a year ago are barely comprehensible. Watching her on the practice courts at the Sparta Praha Tennis Club, it is almost impossible to detect the effects from injuries so severe some experts believed the two-times Wimbledon champion would never resume her career; she ……………… (still suffer) from nerve damage to her playing hand and cannot entirely clench her fist or feel two of her fingers. Kvitova puts down her racket to take a break from back-to-back practice sessions on the indoor courts and makes her way upstairs to a small meeting room with her coach, Jiri Vanek, a kit bag slung over her athletic 6ft frame. After a brief and cheerful exchange in Czech with Vanek, whom she …………. (hire) only a few weeks before the attack, she pulls up a chair by the window overlooking the tired and rusty clay courts below. There is an air of confidence about her as she matter-of-factly discusses the next steps in her recovery before revealing the full physical and mental trauma of an attack that left her terrified to hold a racket again after career-saving surgery and a gruelling rehabilitation. “It will probably take more than a year to get full movement back, I’m not sure,” Kvitova says. “For tennis and for life, it’s good. I …………… (do) everything that I could but there is still some space to improve it. I hope that with more time I will be even stronger. I am happy that [throughout the recovery] I …………….. (always look forward) to the better tomorrows.” The tennis club is some 260km west of Kvitova’s former apartment in Prostejov in the Czech Republic – where the vicious encounter with a knife-wielding intruder on 20 December last year …………….. (take place). Kvitova ……………. (spend) a lot of time since then thinking about all of the simple things that she perhaps took for granted. As she begins to unravel the events of the past 12 months, it quickly becomes apparent that she ……………… (develop) a newfound appreciation for life. The physical scars that lace her playing hand ……………….. (heal); the invisible scars have taken somewhat longer. Kvitova pauses briefly, as if to replay the moments when she worked tirelessly on a five-month rehabilitation programme, before suggesting: “If I wasn’t playing tennis I don’t think I could be as positive as I am now – but it’s not pleasant to see those flashbacks. It is a time that I try to forget but I know I will never really forget what happened. This experience has shown me how hard I can work if I need to and just how much of a fighter I am on and off the court.” (https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/dec/16/petra-kvitova-love-new-hand-knife-attack-wimbledon) B) Can you guess the meaning of the phrases in italics? C) Use the following phrases in various tenses: - do sport - win competitions - qualify for the Olympics - feel very confident - suffer an injury - lose confidence - undergo medical treatment - recover from an injury - develop a newfound appreciation for life - become stronger than ever =)