exertional sickling definition
Exertional Sickling. Exertional sickling is a medical emergency occurring in athletes carrying the sickle cell trait. When the red blood cells(RBC) change shape or âsickleâ this causes a build up of RBCs in small blood vessels, leading to decreased blood flow.The drop in blood flow leads to a breakdown of muscle tissue and cell death, known as fulminant rhabdomyolysis.xertional sickling is most common when exercise is high intensity and has short or small amounts of recovery time between drills. Sports settings common for exertional sickling collapse are: 1  Football conditioning. 2  Basketball training. 3  Cross-country racing.