PRP Injection — Tendon & Sports Injuries

Targeted PRP injections for tendinopathies and sports injuries including tennis elbow, Achilles tendinopathy, rotator cuff tears, and plantar fasciitis. Concentrated platelets accelerate tendon healing and reduce chronic inflammation at the injury site.

Tendon injuries represent one of the most common and challenging presentations in sports medicine, often becoming chronic when traditional rest and physiotherapy approaches fail to achieve full healing. PRP (Platelet-Rich Plasma) tendon injections at Ray of Health offer a clinically validated regenerative approach that directly addresses the underlying biology of tendon degeneration. Tendons have a notoriously poor blood supply, which limits their natural healing capacity. Chronic tendinopathy is not simply inflammation — it is a degenerative process in which disorganised collagen replaces healthy tendon fibres, leading to ongoing pain and mechanical weakness. PRP addresses this by delivering a concentrated payload of growth factors directly into the tendon tissue, reactivating healing pathways that have stalled and stimulating the production of organised type-I collagen — the structural protein that gives healthy tendons their strength and elasticity. At Ray of Health, PRP tendon injections are indicated for a wide range of sports and overuse injuries: lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow) and medial epicondylitis (golfer's elbow), rotator cuff tendinopathy and partial tears, Achilles tendinopathy and insertional Achilles pain, patellar tendinopathy (jumper's knee), plantar fasciitis, and hamstring tendinopathy. These are conditions where Dr James Tan's dual expertise in sports surgery and exercise medicine is particularly valuable — he distinguishes between cases best managed conservatively with PRP and those that require surgical intervention. The procedure follows the same three-step protocol as joint PRP: blood draw, centrifugation to concentrate platelets, and guided injection. For tendon injections, precision of delivery is especially important, as the PRP must be placed within the tendon sheath or at the enthesis (tendon-bone junction) to be effective. The clinical team uses their anatomical expertise to ensure accurate placement. Patients are typically advised to avoid strenuous activity of the affected tendon for two to four weeks following injection, as the early healing phase involves a transient inflammatory response that the PRP initiates. Most patients complete one to three sessions, with a meaningful reduction in pain and return to sport or daily activities expected over a six-to-twelve-week window after the final injection. This treatment is particularly suitable for athletes, weekend warriors, and active individuals who have not responded adequately to rest, physiotherapy, or corticosteroid injections, and who want a biologically active solution that promotes genuine tissue repair rather than temporary pain suppression.