Information about a piece of news titled Previously ankle injured players have a twice as high risk of sustaining a new ankle injury
Previously ankle injured players have a twice as high risk of sustaining a new ankle injury
Intoduction
This is the main finding from a survey carried out in Norwegian 1st, 2nd and 3rd division of soccer for men. The study showed that a previous ankle injury is the most important predictor of increased risk for new ankle injuries.
The ankle joint is one of the most common injury locations in sports in general and soccer in particular. The injury incidence in soccer ranges from 1.7 to 4.5 injuries per 1000 playing hours, accounting for approximately one fifth of all injuries.
To possibly prevent new injuries, the specific intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors for the injury type in question must be known. Therefore, this prospective cohort study was conducted in Norwegian 1st, 2nd and 3rd division of soccer for men.
A total of 508 players representing 31 amateur teams were tested during the 2004 pre-season through a questionnaire on previous injury and function score (foot and ankle outcome score; FAOS), functional tests (balance tests on the floor and a balance mat) and a clinical examination of the ankle.
During the season, 56 acute ankle injuries, affecting 46 legs (43 players), were registered.
Univariate analyses identified a history of previous acute ankle injuries [odds ratio (OR) per previous injury: 1.25, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.09–1.43] and the FAOS subscore.
‘‘Pain’’ (OR for a 10-point difference in score: 0.81, 95% CI 0.62–1.04) as candidate risk factors. In a multivariate analysis, only the number of previous acute ankle injuries proved to be a significant (adjusted OR per previous injury: 1.23; 95% CI 1.06–1.41, P=0.005) predictor of new injuries.
This means that previously injured players have a twice as high risk of sustaining an ankle injury, and that the risk increases with 23% for every previous ankle injury. In this study, it was also shown that no other tests could help to predict which players are at risk of sustaining a new ankle injury.
The authors of this study were Anders Hauge Engebretsen, Grethe Myklebust, Ingar Holme, Lars Engebretsen and Roald Bahr.
The results are published in Scandinavian Journal of Medicine in Science and Sports.