How to classify sports injury?

Injuries are classified according to the type of body tissue damaged, the two categories are soft-tissue injury and hard-tissue injury.

Soft-tissue injuries are the most common injuries resulting from participation in sport.

They include the following:

• Skin injuries—abrasions, lacerations and blisters
• Muscle injuries—tears or strains of muscle fibres and contusions
• Tendon injuries—tears or strains of tendon fibres and inflammation (tendonitis)
• Ligament injuries—sprains and tears of ligament fibres.

Soft-tissue injuries can result in internal bleeding and swelling

Hard-tissue injuries are those involving damage to the bones of the skeleton. They range from severe fractures and joint dislocations to bruising of the bone.