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Editorial
A novel hamstring strain injury prevention system: post-match strength testing for secondary prevention in football
  1. Martin Wollin1,2,
  2. Kristian Thorborg3,
  3. Michael Drew4,5,
  4. Tania Pizzari6
  1. 1 Australian Institute of Sport, Belconnen, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
  2. 2 Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  3. 3 Sports Orthopaedic Research Center–Copenhagen (SORC-C), Arthroscopic Center, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Copenhagen University Hospital, Amager-Hvidovre Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark
  4. 4 Department of Physiotherapy, Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
  5. 5 Australian Collaboration for Research into Injury in Sport and its Prevention (ACRISP), Federation University Australia, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
  6. 6 Physiotherapy, La Trobe University, Mebourne, Victoria, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Martin Wollin, Department of Physical Therapies, Australian Institute of Sport, Belconnen, Australian Capital Territory 2617, Australia; M.Wollin{at}latrobe.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2019-100707

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    Introduction

    Despite the resources applied to the prevention of hamstring injuries in sport, between 2001 and 2014 the hamstring injury incidence and burden did not decline in male professional football.1 2 Consideration of alternative and complementary prevention strategies are needed.3 One-time only preseason screening for hamstring injury risk factors has limited value for preventing hamstring injuries.4 In-season monitoring of hamstring function has been advocated as a secondary prevention strategy.3 Since a player’s isometric knee flexion strength may decrease before suffering a hamstring strain (HS) injury,5 regular hamstring strength monitoring may be valuable. In-season monitoring can ensure players have restored hamstring muscle strength after the demands of a match and prior to undertaking high workloads in training or playing another match. Identifying a post-match impairment (‘subclinical stage of injury’),6 7 allows for early intervention and may be a practical way to lower susceptibility of hamstring injury (online supplementary material figure 1).

    Supplemental material

    [bjsports-2019-100707supp001.pdf]

    In this letter, we report our proof-of-concept hamstring injury prevention system that incorporated secondary prevention for hamstring injury in football. We also compared …

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @KThorborg, @_mickdrew

    • Contributors MW was responsible for the conception and implementation of the study. All authors finalised the concept and study design. MW and MD performed the analysis with all authors contributing to the interpretation of findings. All authors contributed to the production of this research letter.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.