I just did some casual reading on this topic in the unimelb library.
While the concept is intuitive and common sense, Swedish researchers published a study in Nov 2015 claiming no study has previously reported on the correlation between ankle flexibility and ACL injuries.
Causation is argued because “no difference in ankle dorsiflexion was found between injured and uninjured legs, which may indicate that the reduced ankle dorsiflexion was not due to the ACL injury”.
Here’s the conclusion from the abstract:
“The present findings suggest lower degree of ankle dorsiflexion in subjects with an ACL injury than in uninjured controls.
A functional test measuring ankle dorsiflexion with a goniometer may be one way of identifying individuals at increased
risk of ACL injury.“
(Dorsiflexion is when you crouch down and the ankles bend upwards toward your shin)
————-
In addition to other screening methods, do we already use a goniometer to screen potential draftees at-risk of ACL injury?
I imagine we could gather current data from players and determine statistically how inflexible an ankle needs to be before it poses as a red flag. It’s likely not the largest risk factor for predicting ACL injuries, but given the study is only 2 years old I thought the study could potentially be of some use.
Long may Richmond’s low injury rate continue.
While the concept is intuitive and common sense, Swedish researchers published a study in Nov 2015 claiming no study has previously reported on the correlation between ankle flexibility and ACL injuries.
Causation is argued because “no difference in ankle dorsiflexion was found between injured and uninjured legs, which may indicate that the reduced ankle dorsiflexion was not due to the ACL injury”.
Here’s the conclusion from the abstract:
“The present findings suggest lower degree of ankle dorsiflexion in subjects with an ACL injury than in uninjured controls.
A functional test measuring ankle dorsiflexion with a goniometer may be one way of identifying individuals at increased
risk of ACL injury.“
(Dorsiflexion is when you crouch down and the ankles bend upwards toward your shin)
————-
In addition to other screening methods, do we already use a goniometer to screen potential draftees at-risk of ACL injury?
I imagine we could gather current data from players and determine statistically how inflexible an ankle needs to be before it poses as a red flag. It’s likely not the largest risk factor for predicting ACL injuries, but given the study is only 2 years old I thought the study could potentially be of some use.
Long may Richmond’s low injury rate continue.