Pickleball and Padel Injury Statistics for Clinics

Every widely quoted pickleball injury statistic comes from the same place: the US National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, which samples hospital emergency departments and weights the sample up to a national estimate of visits. A visit is not an injury and an estimate of visits is not a rate, because nobody has counted how many people played or for how many hours. The padel literature is the other way round, built from player surveys that do report injuries per 1,000 playing hours, which is why the two sets of numbers cannot be laid side by side.

What the figures can tell you is the case mix walking through the door. What they cannot tell you is anything much about a clinic in Manchester, Toronto, Brisbane or Auckland. The patient-facing pages are written already, starting at the pickleball hub and the padel hub.

What do the pickleball injury statistics actually count?

The field rests on three emergency department studies, and their columns in order show what changed and what did not.

Study	Years	Cases in the sample	Weighted national estimate	Who was hurt
Forrester 2020	2001 to 2017	300	19,012 visits	90.9% aged 50 or over, 50.4% male
Weiss 2021	2010 to 2019	429 in the senior group, 523 across all ages	28,984 senior injuries, 33,817 all ages	Senior comparisons restricted to age 60 and over
Yu 2025	2013 to 2022	1,110	66,350 visits	Mean age 64, range 4 to 93; 61.1% aged 65 to 80

The diagnosis mix is steady across all three, which is the most useful thing about it. Forrester found strain or sprain in 28.7 percent and fracture in 27.7 percent, with lower limb injuries at 32.0 percent and upper limb at 25.4 percent, and 88.0 percent of patients treated and released. Yu and colleagues, a decade later, found fracture the commonest diagnosis at 32.7 percent of the weighted estimate and strains or sprains at 30.8 percent, with falls behind 65.5 percent of all injuries and the wrist the single most injured site at 12.7 percent. In that sample 69.1 percent of fractures were in women. The falls share climbs steeply with age inside their own data: 71.5 percent in players aged 65 to 80 and 96 percent in players of 81 and over, which is the number to have in mind for the oldest patient on your list.

The falls share is a good lesson in reading the denominator, because Weiss and colleagues report two different numbers for it and both are right. Slips, trips, falls and dives accounted for 63.3 percent of their all-age pickleball cases and 66.9 percent of the cases in players aged 60 and over, where the comparable senior tennis figure was 59.0 percent. Across three papers and three samples the falls share sits between 63 and 67 percent. That is the finding, and it is sturdier than any single percentage taken out of it.

The trend is real within the data and says less than headlines imply. Yu and colleagues found a significant rise from 2013 to 2022 in every age group, including a 14 percent fall from 2019 to 2020 and a 41 percent rise from 2020 to 2021 during the pandemic years. Participation rose steeply over the same period, so a rising count of visits is consistent with the injury risk per hour of play staying flat, falling, or rising. The data cannot separate those.

One thing these papers do not support, in any market, is a per-player risk. If a patient asks how likely she is to get hurt, the honest answer is that no study of this sport has the denominator to tell her.

Is the pickleball injury rate higher than tennis?

Nobody has measured a rate for either sport in this literature, so the comparison that exists is a comparison of counts. Weiss and colleagues ran it deliberately, because many seniors play both, and reported weighted estimates of 28,984 pickleball injuries against 58,836 tennis injuries in people aged 60 and over from 2010 to 2019, with pickleball rising fast enough to reach parity with senior tennis by 2018.

Their injury patterns were mostly similar between the two sports. The sex split was not: senior men had about 3.5 times the odds of a strain or sprain, while senior women had about 3.7 times the odds of a fracture and about 9 times the odds of a wrist fracture.

The most clinically interesting line in that paper is the one nobody quotes. Before they could count injuries at all, the authors had to strip out cases that were not injuries, mainly cardiovascular events, which made up 11.1 percent of senior pickleball cases and 21.5 percent of senior tennis cases. Roughly one in nine older pickleball players arriving at a US emergency department from a court was not there because of an injury. Yu and colleagues had to do the same thing with the same data a few years later, excluding an estimated 11,629 visits that were cardiac, heat or dehydration related, or not musculoskeletal. That belongs in your screening, not in a statistics table.

What the numbers mean for a clinic outside the USA

A referrer who arrives with a news headline needs to hear the limits.

The sampling frame is American hospitals, so nothing in it describes UK, Canadian, Australian or New Zealand play, court surfaces, participation or health-seeking behavior. The front door is an emergency department, which collects fractures, head injuries and sudden ruptures and misses the sore calf that got ice and a week off, so these studies systematically under-represent exactly the presentations physiotherapy sees most. Diagnoses come from triage narratives rather than imaging or specialist assessment. And the age distribution reflects who plays in the USA, where the sport grew first among older adults, which is not the age profile of a European padel club.

What survives all of them is useful. The mechanism is overwhelmingly a fall, the commonest injured region is the wrist, the fracture burden sits in older women, and a non-trivial share of court-side emergencies are cardiac rather than musculoskeletal. That is enough to shape a screening question, a prevention program and a waiting room leaflet.

Padel injury prevention, and what the padel data actually show

The padel evidence is thinner on hospital data and better on exposure, which makes it more useful for prescribing and less useful for headlines. Three surveys published in 2025 give the shape of it.

Study	Who	Injury measure	Where
Declève 2025	457 Belgian recreational players, 66.1% men, median age 42	36.5% injured in the past year, 185 injuries, 2.81 per 1,000 playing hours, median recovery 30 days	Lower limb 53.5%
Ferreira 2025	426 Portuguese practitioners on a nationwide questionnaire, 68.3% men, mean age 41.7	69.2% reported at least one lifetime injury, 3.4 per 1,000 hours overall	Elbow 18.0%, ankle 16.6%, knee 12.5%, shoulder 10.5%
Belmar-Arriagada 2025	364 Chilean amateur league players, mean age 37.4, 63% male	53.8% injured in the previous 6 months	Ankle and foot first, then elbow and forearm, then shoulder and upper arm

Tendon and muscle injuries dominate, 35.6 percent tendinous and 26.1 percent muscular in the Portuguese sample, which is a different problem from the fracture-heavy American pickleball picture. And the onset pattern splits by region: in the Chilean sample, elbow, forearm, wrist and hand injuries came on gradually while ankle and foot injuries happened suddenly. A gradual elbow needs load management and a sudden ankle needs an assessment, and patients routinely present the two the same way.

Age is the caveat on all of it. These padel players are in their late thirties and early forties and these pickleball samples are in their sixties, so the difference between the two sets of findings is partly a difference between two populations rather than between two sports. Nothing in either literature compares the sports directly.

The rates have their own caveat: both come from players recalling their own injuries and their own playing hours, and the Portuguese estimate of 3.4 per 1,000 hours carries a standard deviation of 4.7, which is wider than the estimate itself. Treat them as the right order of magnitude rather than as numbers to quote to one decimal place. For patients, the staged programs are common padel injuries, padel elbow and, where the elbow is the presenting problem, playing pickleball and padel with tennis elbow.

Pickleball eye injury statistics, and the padel contrast

Eye injuries are rare in both sports and the mechanism differs enough to change what you advise. The US emergency department records held 117 pickleball eye injury cases from 2010 to 2023, weighted to an estimated 6,015 visits, with a mean patient age of 59.9 years, and 98.3 percent were treated or examined and released (Kamboj 2026). Falls with facial trauma, not ball strikes, were the largest single mechanism at 60.7 percent of cases, against 15.4 percent for a paddle and 10.3 percent for a ball, which our common pickleball injuries page sets out for patients.

In padel the survey evidence points the other way, from a weaker design. It was a voluntary online survey circulated through padel websites and forums, so the players with a story to tell are the likeliest to have answered and the 10 percent should be read as the share of respondents, not of players. Among 583 Italian respondents, 60 players, 10.3 percent, reported at least one ocular injury, and 55 of those 60 were from ball impact. A quarter of the injured players reported a lasting reduction in quality of life, 6 of them had ocular surgery, and the only independent risk factor was how often they played, with the odds peaking in those playing 4 to 6 matches a week. Only 9.6 percent of respondents strongly endorsed goggles (Aiello 2026).

Neither finding is a trial of eyewear, and nobody has tested it in either sport. What they support is a mechanism-specific conversation: in older pickleball players the eye is usually hurt by the floor, so balance and strength work is the relevant protection, while in frequent padel players the ball at the glass is the mechanism eyewear would address.

What should a clinic expect to see?

Two separate caseloads.

The older pickleball cohort brings fall injuries and the consequences of a sudden return to sport after years away: distal radius fractures, head knocks, hip and shoulder contusions, and the dramatic push-off injuries. A wrist fracture in an older player is a fragility fracture until proven otherwise, which makes bone health a referral and not a footnote, and the rehab pathway is wrist fracture rehab. A sudden calf injury with loss of push-off is an Achilles tendon rupture until examined.

The younger padel and pickleball cohort brings gradual-onset elbow, shoulder and knee problems, acute ankle sprains, and calf and hamstring strains. Here the useful history is not the sport but the jump in exposure: a new court nearby, a league signed up for, a holiday week of daily games. Both groups benefit from the same two questions at the first appointment. How many hours a week, and how many of those are new?

For prevention, no trial has tested a warm-up or a strength program in either sport, so what you prescribe rests on the general evidence and on the mechanism data above. One finding shows why these surveys cannot be read as prevention evidence: in the Belgian sample, doing a warm-up was among the factors associated with having been injured. In a cross-sectional design that almost certainly runs backwards, because the players who warm up are often the ones who have been hurt before. The Portuguese survey then points the other way, with coaching by an instructor associated with better warm-up adherence and lower odds of an elbow injury. The two surveys link warming up to opposite outcomes, and neither tells you what prevents anything.

The patient-facing versions are the pickleball warm-up, the strength plan for players over 50, the padel strength plan, and for the older faller the staged balance and falls prevention program. Getting someone back on court after an injury has its own criteria, in returning to pickleball after injury.

Warning signs to give players

These are the lines we put in front of players, word for word. The six emergency lines are the ones a decision at the court side turns on, and the last two are the injuries players most often try to walk off.

Emergency: if chest pain, pressure or tightness does not ease quickly when you rest, spreads to your arm, neck, jaw, stomach or back, or comes with sweating, feeling sick, feeling light-headed or being short of breath, call emergency services straight away, as this can be a heart attack. If it eases quickly and none of these happen, get medical advice the same day, and do not exercise again until you have been checked.
Emergency: if you faint while exercising, call emergency services, even if you feel fine again quickly.
Emergency: after a knock to the head, being very drowsy or finding it hard to keep your eyes open, confusion, a fit (seizure), new weakness or numbness anywhere in your body, new trouble understanding, speaking, walking or keeping your balance, new problems seeing or hearing, clear fluid coming from your ears or nose, bleeding from your ears or bruising behind them, a black eye when your eye was not hit, a dent in your head or a wound with something stuck in it, or a change in behavior. Call emergency services straight away. These can be signs of an injury to the brain.
Emergency: after a knock to the head, you were knocked out, even for a moment, you cannot remember what happened just before or after, you have had a headache ever since, or you are being sick (vomiting). The same applies, even if you feel fine, if you take medicine that thins your blood, other than aspirin on its own, have a bleeding or clotting condition, have had brain surgery in the past, or had been drinking alcohol or taking drugs when it happened. Go to an emergency department straight away, and do not drive yourself.
Emergency: after a ball, a paddle or a fall to the face, any change to your sight, severe pain in the eye, a headache or finding light hard to bear, feeling sick or being sick, an eye you cannot move or keep open, or blood or pus coming from the eye. The same applies if something has pierced the eye or hit it at high speed, or if a strong chemical has gone into it. Go to an emergency department or call emergency services straight away, and do not drive yourself.
Emergency: after a fall or injury to the wrist, your hand is numb, tingles or has pins and needles, the wrist has changed shape or sits at an odd angle, or you heard a crack. The same applies to a bone showing through the skin or a cut that is bleeding heavily. Go to an emergency department or call emergency services straight away, and do not drive yourself. The wrist may be broken or out of place.
Same day: a sudden pop or snap at the back of your ankle or heel, a feeling that someone kicked you there, or sudden pain there after which you cannot push off or rise onto your toes on that leg. Stop, take the weight off that leg carefully and go to an urgent care center or emergency department the same day, even if you can still walk, as this can be a torn Achilles tendon.
Same day: new wrist pain after a fall, even a small one, if you are older, have low bone density (osteoporosis) or have taken steroid tablets for a long time, even if you can still move the wrist. Get medical advice the same day and ask about an X-ray. A broken wrist is not always obvious at first.

In PocketPhysio the warning lines sit with the exercises you send, so the Achilles line travels with the calf work rather than on a separate sheet. The program goes out as a link, by SMS or email, or into the Pocket Physio Care app, and WhatsApp is one option as well.

The short version

The pickleball statistics are weighted estimates of US emergency department visits: about 19,000 over 2001 to 2017 and about 66,000 over 2013 to 2022, mostly from falls, mostly in players past 60, with fracture and strain running neck and neck and the wrist the commonest site. None of them is an injury rate, none describes play outside the USA, and the rise in counts cannot be separated from the rise in participation. The padel surveys do give rates, 2.81 and 3.4 injuries per 1,000 playing hours, in players 20 years younger, with tendon and muscle problems dominating and the elbow leading. Treat them as two caseloads, ask about hours and about what is new, and screen the older player's heart and bone as well as the joint that hurts.

References

Forrester MB. Pickleball-related injuries treated in emergency departments. Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2020;58(2):275-279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jemermed.2019.09.016
Weiss H, Dougherty J, DiMaggio C. Non-fatal senior pickleball and tennis-related injuries treated in United States emergency departments, 2010-2019. Injury Epidemiology. 2021;8(1):34. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40621-021-00327-9
Yu J, Yendluri A, Linden GS, Namiri NK, Corvi JJ, Song J, Parsons BO, Parisien RL. Increasing incidence of pickleball injuries presenting to US emergency departments: a 10-year epidemiologic analysis of mechanisms and trends. Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine. 2025;13(1):23259671241305364. https://doi.org/10.1177/23259671241305364
Kamboj A, Kistamgari S, Mokhtarzadeh A, Harrison AR, Smith GA. Pickleball-related eye injuries presenting to United States emergency departments, 2010-2023. Digital Journal of Ophthalmology. 2026;32(2):26-31. https://doi.org/10.5693/djo.01.2025.12.001
Declève P, Nourissat G, Neyens D, Cools A, Borms D. Prevalence and injury profiles for recreational padel players: a cross-sectional survey-based study. Physical Therapy in Sport. 2025;75:8-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ptsp.2025.07.002
Ferreira RM, Fernandes LG, Campos LD, Gonçalves RS. Sport-related injuries in Portuguese padel practitioners and their characteristics. Medicina (Kaunas). 2025;61(9):1707. https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina61091707
Belmar-Arriagada H, Gajardo-Burgos R, Armstrong R, Bascour-Sandoval C. Padel related injuries: prevalence and characteristics in Chilean amateur players, a cross sectional analytic study. BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation. 2025;17(1):173. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13102-025-01141-2
Aiello F, Gallo Afflitto G, Martucci A, Pocobelli G, Cesareo M, Maurino V, Nucci C. Ocular injuries in padel: findings from a survey on frequency, risk factors, and perceptions toward protective eyewear. Eye (London). 2026;40(10):1469-1476. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-026-04447-8

Written and checked by the PocketPhysio editorial team. Last updated 2026-10-26.

Pickleball and padel injury statistics: a clinic guide to the numbers