24/08/2026
🎙️ Pars Stress Fractures in Young Athletes
Back pain in a young athlete shouldn’t always be dismissed as “just muscular.”
In our latest episode, we sit down with Vishal Kanji, Specialist Physiotherapist at Mayfair Health, to explore one of the most important and often overlooked injuries in young and high-performance athletes: pars stress injuries and lumbar stress fractures.
With experience across elite sport, including work with Arsenal FC, Middlesex County Cricket Club, Essex County Cricket Club and Brentford FC, Vish shares his insight into why these injuries occur, how to recognise the early warning signs, and how they can be managed and prevented.
We discuss how growth, training load, early sport specialisation, biomechanics, nutrition and recovery can all influence bone stress injury risk, and why simply resting the athlete isn’t always the answer.
🔔 In this episode, we cover:
• Why bone stress injuries are common in young athletes
• Early warning signs of pars stress injuries
• Why symptoms are often mistaken for muscular back pain
• RED-S, nutrition, hormones and bone health
• The role of bowling biomechanics and workload
• Staged rehabilitation and return to sport
• Why strength training is essential for prevention
• How bone adapts to progressive loading
🎧 Full episode now live on Apple, Spotify and YouTube, links in bio.