The greatest fear of a sportsperson is not that of losing; it’s the dread of injury bringing an abrupt and unwelcome end to their playing career. There’s no way a professional player can avoid injury all throughout his/her career – there’s bound to be a fall or a spill that could turn nasty, and more often than not, there’s a high probability of repetitive strain injury, the kind that happens when you use one part of the body much more than you’re supposed to. And so we hear of athletes and others who suffer chronic injuries to joints and muscles.

Treatment is often conservative to allow the player to continue participating in his/her sport without missing an important season or series. The problem with conservative injury management is that you tend to aggravate your injury when you continue to play. And when this happens, the only recourse is surgery, an option where recovery and rehabilitation take a long time and eat up a chunk of opportunity money that could have been earned through playing fees and endorsements.

There’s a new silver lining now on the cloud of injury, something called platelet-rich plasma therapy. Alternatively known as PRP, this method of treatment uses the body’s natural healing process and resources to soothe and heal an injury. A tiny amount of the injured person’s blood is placed in a filtration system like a centrifuge and rotated at high speeds to separate the red blood cells from the platelets. Our platelets contain proteins and other particles that hasten the healing process; so when a concentrated volume (a small amount that’s highly concentrated, around 3 to 10 times denser than the count in normal blood) is injected into the injured area, healing takes place rapidly. The platelets help the growth of new soft tissue and bone cells.

While not many people are too enthusiastic about PRP, there’s no denying that it’s a kind of therapy worth trying, especially because it’s non-invasive and because the recovery time is exceptionally quick when compared to conservative management or surgery and consequent rehabilitation. What’s more, the process uses the body’s own cells to expedite the healing process. We’d probably have to wait and see if PRP produces dramatic results, because if it does, you can bet your last dollar that the injured are going to be forming a beeline to get some of this therapy!

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