Fortunately, the great majority of cases present little or no threat to life.
Most sports injuries are musculoskeletal.
Brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and other internal injuries are much less common, but carry greater risk of death or other serious and long-lasting consequences. The extent of sports injury is difficult to measure, for several reasons. Second, injury surveillance often depends on data collected about people who attend clinical services for treatment. Sports injuries are treated in a wide range of settings, including the scene of injury, at sports injury and sports medicine clinics, general practices, emergency departments and in hospitals. The number and diversity of the sites complicates surveillance.