Why Does My Groin Keep Hurting When I Play Soccer?

Tuesday and Thursday nights, maybe a weekend game. You've been playing rec league soccer for years, and somewhere in the last season or two, your groin started aching after games. Then during games. Now it's affecting your cutting and kicking, and rest between games doesn't seem to be fixing it the way it used to.

If this sounds familiar, you're in good company — literally. Soccer players are among the athletes most susceptible to this exact injury pattern, and adductor-related groin strains account for roughly 10 to 11% of all injuries in soccer at every level, recreational leagues included.[^1] But "groin pain" in soccer players isn't always the same problem, and figuring out which one you actually have changes everything about how it gets fixed.

Groin pain in soccer players most commonly stems from an adductor muscle strain (overload or tearing of the inner thigh muscles that control the kicking and cutting motions central to soccer), though it can also indicate athletic pubalgia (a broader pattern of dysfunction involving the abdominal and adductor muscles at their attachment to the pelvis, sometimes called a "sports hernia") or osteitis pubis (irritation of the pubic bone itself, which frequently develops alongside adductor issues). These conditions often coexist and progress from one to another if not addressed, which is exactly why persistent groin pain in soccer players deserves real attention rather than just more rest and hoping.

Here's how these differ, why they're connected, and what actually gets you back on the field.

Why Does My Groin Keep Hurting When I Play Soccer?:

Adductor Strain: The Starting Point for Most Soccer Groin Pain

Your adductor muscles — running along the inner thigh — are working constantly in soccer: cutting, changing direction, and especially the powerful hip adduction involved in kicking. When these muscles are overloaded relative to their current capacity, whether from a single explosive movement or cumulative match and practice load, they strain.

This typically produces pain along the inner thigh, at or near the muscle's attachment to the pelvis, that's aggravated by kicking, sprinting, and cutting movements specifically. Strains range from mild (grade 1, minimal disruption to training) to severe (grade 3, a more significant tear with real loss of function).[^2] Risk factors identified in research include hip muscle weakness, a previous injury to the same area, preseason ramp-up in training load, and lower overall playing experience.[^2]

Athletic Pubalgia: When It's More Than Just the Muscle

Sometimes called "sports hernia," though it's not a true hernia in the classical sense, athletic pubalgia involves a broader pattern of dysfunction at the pubic bone — specifically where the lower abdominal muscles (rectus abdominis) and the adductor muscles share a common attachment point.[^3]

Research using MRI has found that adductor longus injuries specifically overlap heavily with this broader pubalgia pattern, since the rectus abdominis tendon and adductor longus tendon are directly continuous with each other at the pubic bone — meaning stress or injury in one can genuinely affect the other.[^4] This is one of the more common causes of chronic groin pain specifically in sports requiring cutting, pivoting, and kicking, soccer chief among them.[^5]

Athletic pubalgia tends to be more diffuse and harder to pinpoint than a straightforward muscle strain — pain that's difficult to localize precisely, sometimes radiating toward the adductor region, worsening with sit-ups, coughing, or sudden twisting movements, not just kicking specifically.

Osteitis Pubis: The Bone Gets Involved

Osteitis pubis is irritation and stress at the pubic symphysis — the joint where the two sides of the pelvis meet in front — and research has found it's mechanically connected to adductor dysfunction in a genuinely important way: adductor dysfunction most likely precedes and contributes to osteitis pubis developing, rather than the two being unrelated coincidences.[^6]

In other words, this isn't necessarily a separate, unrelated problem — it can be what happens when adductor-related stress at the pubic bone continues without being addressed, eventually irritating the bone itself. Research examining soccer players with debilitating groin pain found substantial overlap between these two conditions, reinforcing that they exist on a related spectrum rather than as entirely separate diagnoses.[^6]

Why This Progression Matters

This is really the key insight: these three conditions aren't necessarily separate, random possibilities — they can represent a progression. An adductor strain that isn't adequately addressed can contribute to the broader pubalgia pattern, and continued stress at the pubic attachment can eventually involve the bone itself as osteitis pubis.

This is exactly why "just rest it and see" sometimes backfires. Rest alone doesn't necessarily address whatever allowed the strain to happen in the first place — usually a strength, load management, or biomechanical factor — which means the same pattern can simply recur once you return to play, potentially progressing further along this spectrum each time.

How Assessment Sorts These Out

Evaluation starts with understanding your specific pain pattern: is it clearly localized to the adductor muscle belly, or more diffuse around the pubic region? Does it worsen specifically with kicking, or also with core-demanding movements like sit-ups or coughing? Has this been a recurring issue, or is this the first time?

From there, palpation identifies whether tenderness is concentrated in the adductor muscle itself, at its attachment near the pubic bone, or more centrally at the pubic symphysis. Strength testing of the adductors and surrounding hip muscles identifies weakness that may be contributing. And for cases with a longer history, more diffuse symptoms, or ones not responding to typical strain treatment, imaging may help clarify whether osteitis pubis or a more significant pubalgia pattern is present.

What Treatment Actually Involves

For a straightforward adductor strain, treatment includes progressive loading and strengthening of the adductor muscles specifically, addressing hip strength more broadly since weakness there is a documented risk factor, and a structured return to cutting, kicking, and sprinting rather than jumping straight back into full training.

For athletic pubalgia, treatment typically needs to address both the adductor and core/abdominal musculature together, given how mechanically connected they are at the pubic attachment, along with movement pattern work addressing whatever's placing excess stress on that region.

For osteitis pubis, treatment focuses on reducing stress at the pubic symphysis while rebuilding adductor and core strength, since ongoing adductor dysfunction is what's believed to drive this condition in many cases — meaning treating the adductors appropriately is often central to resolving the bone-level irritation too.

Across all three, addressing the load management side — how quickly training and match volume increased, whether preseason conditioning was adequate — helps prevent recurrence once you're back playing.

Who You'll Work With

While all of our physical therapists can treat soccer players with groin pain, our new Goodlettsville clinic includes Megan Donovan, PT, DPT, a former Division I soccer player who still plays herself. Beyond her orthopedic training, she genuinely understands the specific demands soccer places on the hips and groin, from both the clinical and player's side of things.

When It's Worth Getting This Looked At

Worth scheduling an evaluation if: groin pain has persisted more than a week or two, it's affecting your kicking or cutting ability, this is a recurring issue you've dealt with before, or the pain feels more diffuse than a typical muscle strain and involves your core or pubic region as well.

Common Questions About Soccer Groin Pain

How do I know if this is a simple strain or something more involved?

Location and character of the pain are useful early clues — a strain tends to be more localized to the muscle itself, while pubalgia and osteitis pubis tend to be more diffuse and may involve core-related movements, not just kicking. A proper evaluation clarifies this more reliably.

Can I keep playing while this gets treated?

Often yes, in modified form, particularly for a mild strain. More involved cases may need more significant modification, which your evaluation will help determine.

Is athletic pubalgia the same as a hernia?

Not exactly — despite sometimes being called a "sports hernia," it doesn't involve the same tissue disruption as a true hernia, though it can produce a similar type of pain.

Why does this keep happening to me specifically?

Recurring groin strains are often linked to inadequate hip and adductor strength relative to what soccer demands, insufficient recovery between matches, or an underlying issue like early osteitis pubis that hasn't fully resolved between episodes.

Do I need imaging to figure out which of these I have?

Not always initially — a lot of this differentiation happens through history and physical examination. Imaging becomes more useful for longer-standing, diffuse, or treatment-resistant cases.

Is surgery ever necessary?

For straightforward adductor strains, rarely. More significant or persistent athletic pubalgia occasionally requires surgical consultation if conservative treatment hasn't resolved things after a genuine trial.

Does this only happen to competitive players, or does recreational soccer count too?

Recreational players are absolutely affected — the same cutting, kicking, and change-of-direction demands that create this injury pattern in professional soccer are present in rec league play too.

How long does recovery typically take?

This varies significantly by severity and which of the three conditions is present, ranging from a couple of weeks for a mild strain to a considerably longer process for more involved pubalgia or osteitis pubis.

Why Does My Groin Keep Hurting When I Play Soccer?: Bottom Line

Groin pain in soccer players is genuinely common, and it's rarely just one isolated problem — adductor strains, athletic pubalgia, and osteitis pubis are mechanically connected conditions that can progress from one to the next if not properly addressed. Getting an accurate read on where you fall on that spectrum is what actually gets you back to full speed instead of managing a nagging issue season after season.

Dealing with groin pain that's affecting your soccer game?

Schedule a Physical Therapy Evaluation at Nashville Physical Therapy & Performance. You'll get completely 1:1 care with your therapist for the entire visit — no aides, no split attention. We'll assess exactly what's driving your groin pain and build a plan to get you back to full speed on the field. Available at East Nashville, West Nashville/The Nations, Brentwood, and our new Goodlettsville location, opening October 5 with both orthopedic and pelvic floor services. Call 615-428-9213 or book online at nashvillept.com.

References

[^1]: Groin injuries in sports medicine. PubMed clinical review.

[^2]: Groin injuries in sports medicine. PubMed clinical review.

[^3]: Athletic Pubalgia and Adductor Strain. Clinical sports medicine reference. 2026.

[^4]: Imaging Review of Groin Pain in Elite Athletes: An Anatomic Approach to Imaging Findings. American Journal of Roentgenology.

[^5]: Groin Injuries (Athletic Pubalgia) and Return to Play. PMC, sports medicine review.

[^6]: Patterns of Bone and Soft-Tissue Injury at the Symphysis Pubis in Soccer Players: Observations at MRI. American Journal of Roentgenology.