Socio-psychological rivulets of sport injury rehabilitation: the case of tertiary league handball players in teachers colleges of Zimbabwe

Abstract

Sport brings enjoyment but injury presence considerably is a great source of pain, despair and stresses in athletes the world over. This study looked at socio-psychological rivulets of sports injury in Zimbabwean Tertiary Handball between 2018 and 2019. It ascertained the extent to which psychological variables impaired recuperating player’s rehabilitation routes and their rehabilitation time-frames of return-to-active sport following an injury. The study was a descriptive, prospective cohort design anchored on quantitative approach. The 228 study participants comprised team physiotherapists, psychologists, fitness trainers, coaches and players from selected Zimbabwe Teachers Colleges Sports Association handball teams. Stratified random sampling was adopted in selecting respondents for the study. Questionnaires were used as data collection tools. IBM SPSS Version 23 was used for data presentation and analysis. Emerging findings revealed high deficiencies regarding players’ psychological and physiological treatment among most sports medicine professionals. Subsequently a multiplicity of injuries with transitional return-to-sport variations evoked players’ psychological distresses (p=0.086>0.05) and psychological instincts of kinesiophobia (p=0.044<0.05; 70.8 mean; 830.8 variance), depressive moods (66.5 mean; 730.8 variance), frustration and stress (p=0.034<0.05; 2.0 and 2.0). Players’ rehabilitation routes ended pre-maturely leading to re-surfacing of index injuries (66.9 mean; 782.4 variance) that emanated from a ‘culture of pain-risk-paradox’. Sufficient recovery and injury monitoring by sports medicine professionals during potential latent period of injury risk are essential for player’s full resurgence of psychological, emotional and physiological parameters. Periodic psychological counselling services are critical in bringing sanity to players’ infractured tenets from injury onset through to return-to-sport.