'Sports Injuries In HK Children A Growing Concern'

Doctors at the Hospital Authority say they are seeing more and more children with chronic injuries they have picked up through intensive sports training.

Baseball is flagged up as a particular concern, with children damaging their elbows, while other kinds of training are leaving youngsters with bone fractures, torn muscles and even burnout.

Dr Wun Yiu-chung, an orthopaedics and traumatology consultant at Tuen Mun Hospital, said the numbers of patients are not that high at this point, but it's a growing problem in Hong Kong.

"I think it's because the society is more alert and aware of the benefits of sports and they want to have the youth and adolescents to be more active in their participation in sports," Wun said.

"It's quite natural that those young athletes will strive for excellence, strive for elite levels, and that would predispose [them] to a risk of overuse injuries."

Wun told RTHK's Frances Sit that young athletes don't always have the correct mindset when it comes to the intensity of training programmes and they can be too aggressive in their goals. He added that parents and coaches can also put too much pressure on children in this regard.

The doctor warned that the biggest risk of injuries come from sports than involve a lot of jumping, running or those which place endurance demands on the lower limbs.