Do you spend enough time warming up before you play?  Are you using the right stretching exercises?

Prepare yourself physiologically and psychologically before every game with these example exercises kindly provided by Crystal Palace Sports Injury Centre.

Warming up helps to:

• make muscles and tendons more extensible – decreasing the incidence of muscle strains
• Increase blood flow and increase available oxygen for the muscles
• Increase blood temperature leading to more oxygen entering muscle tissue
• Increase rise in metabolic activity which improves the efficiency of muscle contraction.

All of which helps to reduce the risk of injury.