With the coronavirus pandemic affecting athletics and education throughout the past year, one local physical therapist talks about the rise of injuries. 

Physical Therapist and Rehabilitation Director with 21st Century Rehab Clint Lutterman says throughout the past year he has seen an increase in the number of injuries to athletes, which he attributes partly to the pandemic. 

“We saw a big rise in injuries over the last year, not just here but at a lot of our schools, I relate a lot of that to COVID. I know it sounds kind of (like)  relating everything to COVID nowadays but so many kids I think just weren’t active, weren’t able to get out, you missed the full spring season, summer was kind of funny, fall was kind of funny but then jumped right into it in fall.”

Lutterman tells Raccoon Valley Radio the deconditioning and less activity throughout the year possibly led to a higher injury rate and more concussions. Lutterman says this increase isn’t just Perry specific. 

“We have got four other schools that we work with closely and they saw similar things this past year. Similar size schools as Perry, similar size population, different dynamics obviously within each school district but all of them kind of had an increase in injuries.”

Lutterman says it also isn’t limited to high school sports as even professional athletes have seen impacts from the pandemic.