The Cost of Playing Through Injury in Sports

Robert Griffin III, former quarterback for Washington, played through an LCL sprain in the 2013 Wild Card game. (Sports Illustrated)

At all levels of sports, many athletes choose to play through injury, either through personal choice or pressure to stay in the game to meet expectations. This problem with athletes playing through injury turns into a bigger issue of long-term health problems and irreversible damage.

“I made it through,” said Lamont Butler after playing through a serious shoulder injury during the 2025 NCAA Basketball Tournament. This statement from Butler proves that athletes will fight through pain just to be able to play.

Injuries are common in sports, with at least 40-50% of athletes suffering from at least one injury in their collegiate careers. Many athletes will choose to hide these injuries, no matter the severity. Even a minor injury can turn into a major one if proper precautions and rest are not taken.

“I didn’t tell anyone, but it got worse and worse each week. I couldn’t see the ball, and every time I got hit, I saw flashes of white,” said Boogie Knight, a Louisiana–Monroe Warhawks football wide receiver, who kept his concussion a secret.

Examples date back to the 2019 NBA Finals, when star small forward Kevin Durant was continuing to play on a calf strain and then later ruptured his Achilles tendon –the large tendon that connects the calf muscles to the heel. Robert Griffin III was kept in his team’s 2013 Wildcard game despite having an LCL sprain and knee instability, which later turned into a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), LCL (lateral collateral ligament), and meniscus– key stabilizing structures in the knee.

Aside from ligament injuries, head injuries are constantly hidden by athletes. According to the Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics (JIIA), about 43% of college athletes admit to hiding concussion symptoms to keep playing.

Monmouth University running back Makhi Green recalls a head injury he sustained and continued to play through in high school.

“I got hit pretty hard, and then once I got up, I felt wobbly and dizzy,” Green said. “I didn’t want to come out, though, because it was a close game.”

Concussion protocol is not always followed properly, which puts athletes at higher risk for more serious injury, such as Post-Concussion Syndrome (PCS), which causes long-lasting concussion symptoms, or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma.

Dr. Alaina Davis, a speech-language pathologist who specializes in traumatic brain injury and concussions, spoke to this.

“The return to play protocols have to be followed more,” Davis said. “There’s still a history of sending athletes back out into the court or the field way too soon. They need to change some of the methods and how they care for the athletes after suffering possible concussions.”

Overuse injuries that affect performance and mobility for years due to improper care not only take a physical toll, but also a mental one.

Tracey Covassin, an athletic trainer at Michigan State University, spoke to this.

“Overuse injuries may present not only physical challenges but also psychological ones that could significantly affect an athlete’s recovery and performance,” Covassin said.

When an injury does not go away, it can wear an athlete down mentally, as the constant frustration and limitations can prevent them from performing at their highest level.

Playing through injury in sports puts both an athlete’s physical and mental health at risk, which is why precautions are necessary to follow so athletes stay protected.