Sports & performance
Football & AFL Chiropractor
Football asks for repeated maximal sprinting, hard changes of direction, kicking at range and contact — often in the same ninety seconds. Most of what comes in from it is lower limb, and most of it is about how the season has been loaded.
Can a chiropractor help with football injuries?
A chiropractor can assess and manage many musculoskeletal football injuries — hamstring, groin, hip, knee, ankle, lower back and shoulder complaints — and plan a graded return to play. Northern Beaches Chiropractic in Currambine refers on for imaging or specialist review where an injury warrants it.
What football asks of you
High-speed running is the headline demand and the one most closely linked to hamstring injury. It is also the one most often under-trained: players accumulate plenty of running volume in the aerobic range and comparatively little at true top speed, then meet top speed in a game.
Change of direction loads the groin, hip and knee in positions that straight-line running never rehearses. Repeated hard cuts on a fatigued leg is where a lot of the risk sits.
Kicking is a fast, one-sided, high-range movement demanding hip flexion power and a lot of control through the pelvis and groin. Volume matters here too — a big kicking session after a quiet off-season is a common precursor.
Contact adds the unpredictable component: shoulders in tackles, ankles in packs, and the occasional back or neck knock. That part is far less about preparation and far more about assessment afterwards.
Then there is the season shape. Pre-season builds capacity, the season maintains it, and the bye rounds and layoffs quietly erode it. A lot of mid-season injuries are really about what happened three weeks earlier.
Where people commonly feel it
These are the areas that come up most with football and AFL. Each links through to a fuller explanation of that presentation.
Hamstring
The most common football injury. Strongly related to high-speed running exposure and prior history.
Groin and hip
Change of direction and kicking volume. Often grumbling for weeks before it stops play.
Knee and ankle
Cutting, landing and contact. Anything with immediate swelling or an inability to weight bear needs assessment promptly.
Lower back
Contact, kicking volume and running load through a season.
Shoulders
Tackles and falls. Worth assessing properly rather than playing through by default.
How we approach it
For an acute injury the first job is working out what it is and what it needs — including whether it needs imaging or a specialist rather than treatment. Anything with immediate swelling, an inability to weight bear or a joint that felt like it moved gets that conversation first.
For the grumbling ones, assessment covers the tissue and the season. What has your running load looked like, when did the kicking volume go up, how many games back-to-back, and what did the last layoff look like.
Management combines hands-on treatment where it helps with the loading that actually rebuilds capacity — and for football that means getting exposure to speed and change of direction back in, progressively, rather than only strengthening in the gym.
Who you will see
Someone who has done the training, not just read about it
Dr Corey Williams spent more than ten years in CrossFit, strength and conditioning — coaching, programming and competing — before and alongside chiropractic. He holds a double bachelor qualification in chiropractic from Murdoch University and is advanced dry needling certified.
He has also spent time around AFL and elite sporting environments, where return to play is decided on criteria rather than optimism. That shapes how these plans are built.
It also means a conversation about football and AFL starts at what the activity actually demands, rather than at a diagram.
- Double bachelor, Murdoch University
- Advanced dry needling certified
- 10+ years strength & conditioning
- Experience in elite sporting environments
Returning to play
Return to play is staged and each stage has criteria: settle the acute phase, restore range and strength, reintroduce running, then speed, then change of direction, then contact, then full training — and only then a game.
Skipping stages is the single most common reason a hamstring shows up again in round nine. Being pain-free at walking pace tells you very little about what happens at ninety percent.
For juniors, growth changes the picture and the plan accounts for it. Parents and guardians are welcome in the room, and honest conversations about whether to play this week are part of the job.
What care may involve
Getting to the clinic
The clinic is at 1244 Marmion Avenue in Currambine, opposite Milky Lane, a short drive from Joondalup, Currambine, Kinross and the surrounding northern suburbs.
Frequently asked questions
How soon can I play after a hamstring injury?
It depends on the severity and on how you respond, and it is judged on criteria rather than a date — restored strength, restored range, and graded exposure back to top speed and change of direction. Returning on a calendar rather than on criteria is the most common reason hamstrings recur.
Should I play through a niggle?
Sometimes it is reasonable, sometimes it is not, and the difference is worth an assessment rather than a guess. A groin that has grumbled for three weeks is telling you something; so is a hamstring that tightens every time you sprint.
Do you see junior footballers?
Yes. Growth-related and load-related complaints in junior players are common, and the expectations and loading differ from adults. A parent or guardian stays in the room for anyone under 18.
Has Dr Corey worked with football teams?
He has experience around AFL and elite sporting environments, which shapes how return-to-play is approached here — staged, criteria-based, and honest about what is ready and what is not.
Related pages
Last reviewed by Dr Corey Williams, Chiropractor. General information, not individual health advice.
Training through something?
Book an assessment at the Currambine clinic and get a plan that keeps you moving.