From January 1985 to May 1994, herniography was performed in 60 football players with groin pain but without clinical signs of hernia. Herniographic examination revealed 62 occult inguinal hernias in 51 cases, nine cases were normal. Fifty of these 51 cases were operated on. Surgery was postponed until the end of the league in one case. There was only one false positive examination. The herniographic and operative diagnoses corresponded well in the other 49 cases. There were three minor complications which have related to the needle sigmoid colon puncture, all of them were managed conservatively. There was no technical failure. These results indicate that herniography is a safe and valuable method to identify non palpable herniations causing groin pain of unknown origin in football players.