When University of Connecticut star Ryan Boatright rolled his ankle Sunday, he was treading on a well-worn trail. About 600,000 basketball players get hurt so badly they end up in U.S. emergency rooms each year. That’s more than any other sport.

But a close look at how basketball players get hurt shows that many of the injuries could be avoided.

Boatright went down in classic basketball fashion. With seconds left on the clock, he swerved around a screen, trying to block a shot by Longhorn Jonathan Holmes. He came down on the side of his foot instead of the sole. The joint collapsed, he fell and Holmes sunk the game-winning three-pointer.

Here’s his account of the injury, courtesy of the Huskies:

The Ways Basketball Players Get Hurt

Most of the statistics we have about how basketball players get hurt come from studies in high school and college athletes. But the results are pretty consistent, and it’s likely that they apply to older basketball players as well. A survey of U.S. emergency room visits found that every year about 11,000 adults over 45 get hurt playing basketball.

About a quarter of all basketball injuries are ankle sprains, according to these studies. And as many as 90 percent of elite basketball players say they’ve sprained an ankle in their sport. Balance training and bracing have both been shown to prevent ankle injuries.

Knees account for the second most common type of injury in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, about 13 percent of the injuries in women and 10 percent in men. In particular, women blow out their anterior cruciate ligaments (ACL) at a much higher rate than men. ACL tears make up 8 percent of all the basketball injuries in women but only 1.8 percent in men.

Systematically strengthening key muscle groups and learning proper jumping form both help protect your knees in basketball.

Among the most serious basketball injuries are concussions, which make up about 3 percent of the injuries in men and 3.4 percent in women.

Head Injury Reports Increasing

Reports of injuries to the head appear to be increasing in college basketball in general, but it’s not clear whether that increase is because the style of play has become more violent or because of more public attention has been focused on concussions. About half the injuries result from contact between players.

While mouth guards can protect athlete’s teeth, the claim that they can also reduce the risk of concussion has not been proved.

Overuse injuries like tendinitis are common in basketball as well. The most serious overuse injuries in basketball are stress fractures, particularly common in feet. Fractured feet account for about 6 percent of injuries that sideline basketball players for 10 days or more. Strengthening exercises can help prevent these injuries as well.

The next article in this series will delve in greater detail into the types of exercises you can do to prevent basketball injuries.

Have you ever gotten hurt playing basketball? In the comment box below, please tell us how — and what you’re doing to prevent these injuries the next time.

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