Pickleball injuries are on the rise, according to research and medical professionals

The action is fast and furious at the Pickleball Hub, an indoor pickleball facility in Edmonton.

Inside, 54-year-old Rob MacDonald plays with enthusiasm – and caution.

Five years ago, an Edmonton man suffered a “freak accident” during a pickleball tournament.

“My body went behind my knee, kind of twisted and then blew my knee out, decided to let go of the ACL, the MCL, everything inside the knee,” he said.

“it was not fun.”

For three years, McDonald could not play pickleball and had to undergo rehabilitation.

Now he’s back on the court, playing six times a week, for three hours at a time, and wants others to be aware that injuries can happen.

“I think most injuries happen in the first few months of playing and people not being active or getting their bodies ready for the idea of ​​activity,” he said.

Injuries are increasing

As the sport grows in Canada, medical professionals say they’re seeing the impact it’s having on people physically.

Chad Burden, a physiotherapist at Summit Physiotherapy in St. Albert, a suburb outside Edmonton, said he didn’t see pickleball injuries as high as five years ago.

Now, he sees them every week.

“When they start playing, they’re enjoying the game and so they just get into it and enjoy it. But they don’t necessarily think about potential injuries,” Burden said.

“It’s good that people are more active. But on the other hand, with activity also come injuries.”

He said clients are coming in with elbow, wrist, lower back and knee injuries.

“What we’ve seen in the clinic is mostly overuse. It’s that weekend warrior type syndrome where people are doing too much too soon,” Burden said.

His observations reflect the conclusions A Sports Medicine Open study published in August 2025 Which examined the injury patterns of pickleball players in the United States.

The 12-month study found that the most common injuries were to the knee (29 percent), thigh, leg and foot (26.9 percent) and shoulder (22.2 percent).

If left untreated, a person’s quality of life, such as walking or lifting things, can be affected, Burden said.

He advises pickleball players to ease into the sport, stay flexible, do strength training and work on their balance.

“It’s a high-impact sport and you’re doing a lot of things… starts and stops and pivots and turns and so on, so your balance has to be good too,” he said.

eye injury

As pickleball has increased in popularity over the past four years, eye injuries have also been increasing at an alarming rate. A study published in October 2025 in JAMA Ophthalmology,

It estimates that, between 2005 and 2024, there were 3,112 pickleball-related eye injuries and the majority of them, 88 percent, occurred between 2022 and 2024.

This dramatic increase is consistent with what optometrist Matt Sobolewski, owner of Helio Optometry in Edmonton, has seen firsthand.

“It’s something we’ve seen a lot more of in the last two or three years, as I think pickleball has become a lot more popular,” he said.

The main injuries Sobolewski sees are blunt force injuries, where a person’s eye is hit by a pickleball or paddle, and corneal abrasions.

Most injuries can be treated by an optometrist, he said, but he emphasizes that athletes should stay active.

“You should be wearing some type of protective glasses, whether it’s specific safety- or sports-type glasses or some type of barrier that comes in between paddle, ball or any type of sport,” Sobolewski said.

The frame of the glasses probably saved Rita Salter from injury when she was hit in the face with a pickle ball.

“It was a side shot. Someone hit it from the side of the paddle and (it) hit my eye and (my glasses) saved me,” he said.

Salter, who is retired and enjoys the team aspect of the sport, makes sure to wear eyewear when he plays. She also follows an exercise routine so that she does not suffer any other injuries.

“I lift weights, so I probably do that two or three times a week,” she said. “I have a stretching regimen that I do every day, whether I play pickleball or not.”