Objective Cervical strain may occur following sports related head injury but it’s prevalence in concussed athletes is unknown representing a therapeutic target. Our objective was to determine the prevalence of cervical strain in the acute setting post-injury in varsity collegiate athletes diagnosed with concussion.

Design Retrospective review of an established collegiate athlete head injury database.

Setting Varsity collegiate sports.

Participants Athletes ages 18–24 sustaining acute head injury subsequently diagnosed as a mild traumatic brain injury by a physician concussion specialist.

Interventions (or Assessment of Risk Factors) Assessment of risk factors include sex, age, and sport.

Outcome Measures Prevalence of concomitant cervial strain in the setting of concussion.

Main Results 63% of our cohort were diagnosed with concomitant cervical strain by sports medicine physical therapists following neck mobility assessments in the setting of acute concussion. Athletes with concomitant cervical strain had higher postconcussive symptom reports.

Conclusions Cervical strain is an important concurrent injury to assess for following sports related concussion and symptoms may overlap with concussion symptoms.