Esport has been considered as one of sport branches, but many people do not know that esport athletes can suffer from injuries like the other sport athletes. Although there is almost zero physical contact in the middle of competition, but if you are not careful, playing games for hours can damage your body and mind.

Because it is categorized as new sport, the doctors are still monitoring the esport athletes and any possible injuries that might happen from this sport. The doctors believe that long term injuries will appear as the athletes age, however because of the increase in the popularity of esport, this issue must be kept in mid by the esport community. 

Here is the list of injuries and other health problems that often haunt the esport athletes:

1. Wrist Injury (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome)

Wrist injury is the most dangerous scenario for the esport athletes. It is so dangerous, that many athletes were forced to end their career because of this injury.  

Quoted from Blitz Esport, the esport news site that focused on League of Legends (LoL) and Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) games, this injury occurs when the athletes playing games for hours and keep moving their wrist with intense movement.

The intense repetitive movement of the fingers and hand causes swelling. This swelling can disturb the nerve on the wrist whose primary function is to carry information from the hand to the brain and vice versa.

Early symptoms include numbness or tingling. If you ignore these symptoms, as time passes it can get worse. That’s why the esport athlete must maintain their health, especially their wrist.

2. Lung Problems

The popular gaming website, Kotaku, in 2017 reported that there have been six famous esport athletes who have suffered from lung problems, pneumothorax, over the last seven years. The people who suffered from this often feel pain in the chest, shoulder, back and difficulty breathing.

Although there is still no research that explain the correlation between esport and this illness, the doctors believe that the people with poor body posture, unhealthy diet and inactive lifestyle are prone to this illness.

3. Performance-enhancing drugs

In a 2015 interview, CS:GO player Kory “Semphis” Friesen said that his entire team was on Adderall drug. This drug is actually used to treat the people with ADHD, however  when this drug is used by a normal person, it was said that the drug boosts concentration and focus especially when playing game.

Yet according to Business Insider, a media wrote this news, the claims that said Adderall  boosts the athletes’ concentration and focus could hardly be proven. What we know for sure that these drugs could lead to increase heart rate and blood pressure. The worst thing is that the drug can be addictive.

The abuse of performance-enhancig drugs has been a big scandal in many sports branches, of course we hope the same thing does not happen in esport.

4. Mental Fatigue

Like other sports, mentality is a very important factor in esport. But esport athletes who usually start competing professionally at a very young age usually forget this.

In addition to long training duration, esport athletes have to do other activities so they eventually lose their time to meet with their family and friends. The sports media, ESPN, believes that mental fatigue is one of the main reasons why many athlete retire in their twenties.

5. Poor Nutrition and Lack of Exercise

As mentioned previously, the esport athletes are commit to practice and it may not give them much room for physical exercise. Whereas in addition to reflexes and strategies, physical endurance is very much needed in esport. This is worsened by the athletes who do not pay attention to nutritional food.

Fortunately, the current esport teams begin to pay attention to their athletes’ well-being. At IDBYTE, the CEO of RRQ, Andrian Paulie, stated that THE athletes in RRQ were required to exercise at least once every two weeks.

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