This is an injury that can be more serious than you’d think, Dr. Colvin cautions. While you may not have a broken bone, a jamming a finger can cause tendon damage, and tendon damage is much easier to treat if it is treated quickly.
Tendons are similar to rubber bands, tough fibers that connect your muscles to your skeleton. When damaged, they can lose elasticity, or even “curl up” like a rubber band snapped after stretching too far, and that can make treatment and recovery a much more difficult proposition. If you jam your finger and it swells, resist the urge to tape two fingers together and keep playing. Go get an X-Ray.