I had the opportunity to speak to Dr. Michael Kern during the Knoxville Orthopaedic Clinic (KOC) annual Kick-Off Classic for Knox County high school football teams on Friday, August 15.

Dr. Kern is an orthopaedic sports medicine and arthroscopic specialist whose passion is working with athletes of all ages to help them recover after injuries, so my questions centered on those areas of his expertise.

Question: What are the most common kinds of injuries that you see when you’re dealing with these sports?

Dr. Kern: “Well, when it comes to severe injuries that we see, the most common ones are shoulder dislocations. We see a fair amount of ligament injuries in the knee, as well as foot and ankle injuries, including bad ankle sprains and sometimes ankle fractures. I say those are probably the most common.”

Question: How do you balance injury treatment with their desire to return to play?

Dr. Kern: “At the end of the day, the safety of the player is paramount. So, if there’s any concern about, you know, putting the player’s future physical health at risk, then there’s no real debate. The harder questions are the ones where there’s incomplete information in between cases? In those scenarios, the best approach is to have a good conversation with the player and their parents.”

Question: How do you coordinate the care that you all do with the physical therapist, the athletic trainers, and the coaches?

Dr. Kern: “The relationship with the athletic trainers is really critical, being in constant communication for the athletes that are either needing more immediate evaluation or not progressing appropriately, ’cause you get a lot of these in between cases that really don’t merit a clinic visit that maybe merits monitoring on the sidelines. We will frequently evaluate players on the sidelines on a weekly basis.”

Question: Do you believe in the preseason screenings and the functional movement assessments?

Dr. Kern: “So, it’s interesting. I think the preseason history and physical has been debated about its being worthwhile in nature because it hasn’t been shown to prevent certain injuries. But there are some key things in that history and physical that do have some real value. Mainly collecting information about whether or not players have a heart history. Also, just routinely identifying players that have medical problems that need management during the season, and then also identifying players that maybe are a high risk of injury, you know, because of the way they’re built, and it gives you a good baseline on the field evaluation.”

Question: How do you determine whether they’re ready to play after an injury? What factors influence whether an athlete should rest or continue modified training?

Dr. Kern: “That is very injury specific. There are some injuries that are really important to shut down that can save you weeks on the back end. Then there are other injuries where we’re okay with progressing through, and it’s okay to push through pain, as long as you pay attention to certain factors. In general, muscle injuries are very intolerant of moving it too fast. So, if you have a significant muscular injury, you want to shut it down more quickly, rather than less.”

Question: Is there anything else that you would like for the readers to understand about taking care of an injury?

Dr. Kern: “I tell patients, a lot of them know their own body better than we do. A lot of times, when you get a sense that something’s wrong and you’re having pain that’s persistent for a couple of weeks or real weakness or dysfunction, then you usually need to get evaluated.”

We appreciate the time Dr. Kern took to discuss these concerns surrounding those everyday injuries we may think a bag of ice can cure!

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