With every injury it is important to remember that the athlete will be affected mentally. Not all athletes will act identically to the same injury. Although research shows there are factors that are commonly seen among athletes going through adjustment to injury and rehabilitation. There are three reactive phases of the injury and rehab process. They are reaction to injury, reaction to rehabilitation, and reaction to return to competition or career termination. The reactions fall into four time frames: short term, long term, chronic, and termination.

In the scenario the athlete was diagnosed with a second degree ankle sprain. This would fall under the category of a long term injury. A long term injury is one where the rehabilitation time is longer than four weeks and may take up to a year. Some other examples of injuries in this category would be fractures, orthopedic and general surgeries, second and third degree sprain and strains, and debilitating injuries.

In the reaction to the injury itself, there is a primary reaction followed by a secondary reaction. With this ankle sprain, a common primary reaction

A common secondary reaction is anger. During this time the athlete may have an angry or hostile attitude and the person around the athlete at the time often takes the force of the anger. It is usually just a release for the athlete not a personal attack on the trainer.

Secondary to loss of vigor and irrational thoughts is alienation. With an injury that requires many weeks of rehab before they can return to play the athlete may feel isolated from their teammates. They may also feel that the coaches do not care about them and their teammates no longer have time for them. If it is possible to let the athlete remain involved with the team it can help them to feel less isolated.

is that of fear. This athlete can be afraid of many things ranging from them never getting better to never getting to play again to being afraid of the unknown. In order to conquer this fear the athletic trainer needs to help reassure the athlete about their injury. This can be done by presenting the truth about the injury and rehab process in a manner they can understand and gaining the athlete's trust in the athletic trainer.

Finally, the reactions to return to play with a lo

Some common words found in the essay are:
Effects Injury, loss vigor, return play, term injury, athletic trainer, injury rehab process, loss vigor irrational, person athlete, ankle sprain, feel isolated, injury rehab, rehab process, injury rehabilitation,
Approximate Word count = 789
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)