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Information about a piece of news titled Previous injury and weak adductor muscles dispose for new groin injuries in male football (soccer)

Previous injury and weak adductor muscles dispose for new groin injuries in male football (soccer)

Intoduction

A survey in Norwegian 1st, 2nd and 3rd division of football (soccer) for men found that players with previous groin injury have a twice as high risk of sustaining a new groin injury, while players with weak adductor muscles have more than four times increased injury risk.

A total of 508 players representing 31 amateur teams were tested during the 2004 preseason for potential risk factors for groin injury through:

 

a questionnaire on previous injury, a muscle function score, a clinical examination, 40 meter sprint test and counter-movement jump test.

 

 

During the football season, 61 groin injuries, affecting 55 legs (51 players), were registered. The total incidence of groin injuries was 0.6 injuries per 1000 playing hours (95% CI 0.4 to 0.7), 0.3 injuries per 1000 training hours (0.2 to 0.4) and 1.8 injuries per 1000 match hours (1.2 to 2.5).

 

In a multivariate analysis, previous acute groin injury (adjusted OR 2.6, 95% CI 1.1 to 6.1) and weak adductor muscles as determined clinically (adjusted OR 4.3, 1.3 to 14.0) were significantly associated with increased risk of groin injuries.

That means that a player with a previous injury and weak adduktor muscles had en 3-4 times higher risk for sustaining a new groin injury than a players without these weaknesses.

 

Groin injuries can be prevented

Groin strain injuries are among the most common injuries in male football and account for 11-16% of all injuries. Such injuries have been indicated to be preventable through strength training exercises www.skadefri.no. We suggest that players, especially with previous injury and/or weak adductor muscles, carry out these exercises in the pre-season to reduce risk of new strains.

 

The authors of this study were Anders Hauge Engebretsen, Grethe Myklebust, Ingar Holme, Lars Engebretsen and Roald Bahr.

 

Read the article from the American Journal of Sports Medicine here.