Prevent Ankle Injuries
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A simple way to predict ankle risk
US researchers have found a simple, inexpensive screening tool that can predict athletes at risk of ankle injuries during soccer training and help them avoid it.
Ankle sprains are a common and potential disabling injury, especially in team sports like American football, soccer and volleyball, the researchers point out. Ankle sprain accounts for 12-20% of all sports injuries and causes 16% of all sports injury time loss.
Athletes scoring badly on stabilometry tests, which measure balance disturbances, have been shown to be at increased risk of ankle injury. But stabilometry equipment is expensive and not readily available for pre-participation examination (PPE). So these researchers set out to test whether the single-leg balance (SLB) test, which uses no equipment at all, would be a useful alternative for predicting ankle sprain.
The test involved the athletes closing their eyes for 10 seconds while standing on one foot without shoes, with the other knee bent and not touching the weight-bearing leg. An athlete scored ‘positive’ if he or she was unable to carry out the test on either or both legs.
The participants were then followed up through the season to record the incidence of ankle sprains.
Over this 14-week period, 28 ankle sprains were reported in the 230 athletes. And the researchers were able to show that athletes with a positive SLB test were significantly more likely to incur this injury, particularly if they did not tape their ankles.
Interestingly, a history of previous ankle injury was not associated with future ankle sprains in this study, although people with previous injuries were more likely to do badly on the SLB test.
The researchers comment: ‘While the SLB test served as a predictor of injury, the exact mechanism responsible for this increased risk of injury remains unknown.’
Further research is needed to determine this mechanism – but meantime the findings support the role of taping in athletes at increased risk.
Br J Sports Med 2006; 40:610-613





























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