The hamstring is the most commonly re-injured muscle in sport, and the reason is almost always the same: people come back when it stops hurting rather than when it is ready.
Grades and timescales
Muscle strains are graded by how much tissue is damaged:
- Grade 1 — a few fibres. Typically 4–6 weeks.
- Grade 2 — a partial tear. Typically 6–10 weeks.
- Grade 3 — a complete tear. 12 weeks to 6 months, and needs medical assessment.
Those numbers surprise people. A grade 1 hamstring often feels fine within two weeks, which is precisely the trap — the tissue is nowhere near its former strength at that point.
Worth knowing: an overstretching injury — the kind from a high kick or a slide tackle rather than a sprint — tends to heal more slowly than the sprinting type, even though it can look identical.
What treatment involves
Early on, protection and gentle work only. Deep massage on freshly torn muscle increases bleeding and makes things worse.
Through the middle phase, soft tissue work to keep scar tissue laying down in line with the muscle fibres rather than across them, restoring length and movement.
Then progressive loading, which is the part that actually prevents re-injury. Returning to sprinting without eccentric strength work is how a six-week problem becomes a recurring one.