Injury and rehabilitation: perceptions of injured football players during the 1996 season

The research design, Interpretive Interactionism (Denzin, 1989) was used to conduct a study of football players within-season at a Division 1 University. In conducting this qualitative study the purpose was to gain useful insight and understanding into the player's perception of events that occur within the culture that promotes or inhibits the course taken from injury through the rehabilitation process.

Topics included but were not limited to: the significance of the injury, the reactions to the injury, the behaviors exhibited and the judgments made during the injury and rehabilitation experience. A total of six players were injured and missed a game and included three with short rehabilitation (4 weeks or less) and three with long rehabilitation (8 weeks or more).

Injured football players in the process of rehabilitation move from the familiar football culture to the unfamiliar rehabilitation setting. This adjustment to a new environment coupled with reaction to injury and rehabilitation often elicits a stress response. The manner in which each injured player copes with injury and the way they make sense of the process of rehabilitation are revealed in their stories.

Note: Abstract extracted from PDF file via OCR.