I’m an 18-year-old athlete who plays multiple sports, primarily hockey and golf. I also go to the gym three to four times a week.

The problem before treatment: For the past seven months, I had been experiencing a strange, aching pain in my neck and upper back. It caused ongoing discomfort and started to affect my everyday life. I was constantly moving my neck around trying to relieve the pain, but nothing helped long term.

What made me seek help: I decided to seek physiotherapy because the discomfort was causing me grief all the time, with nothing seeming to help for more than a couple of minutes at most.

Treatment: When I first started treatment, it began with a simple assessment, followed by some sports massage to relieve knots and tension in my upper back, which really helped. At each session, my physio and I would discuss how my exercises were going, review my progress, and gradually introduce new exercises to help strengthen my muscles.

Outcome: Although I am still undergoing treatment, the exercises and sports massage have already shown clear improvement and have significantly reduced how much the pain affects me.

I am now back to playing sports while continuing with my physiotherapy sessions. My aim is to be back to 100% over the next few months and to no longer experience the pain.

If you start to feel constant discomfort, seek physiotherapy help. It really does help and can reduce worries about what the pain might be.