FastFact

Does having a Therapeutic Use Exemption increase your likelihood of winning an Olympic medal?

Does having a Therapeutic Use Exemption increase your likelihood of winning an Olympic medal?

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Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs) allow players with legitimate medical conditions to participate equally in elite sport. There can however be a perception that players who are using exempt medications are potentially cheating, and that TUEs could give an unfair advantage to some players. This FastFact is based on a paper that reviewed eight years of [...]
Can we examine a player’s hip via telehealth ?

Can we examine a player’s hip via telehealth ?

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With the current constraints imposed by the global COVID-19 pandemic, football players and their teams have more restricted access to their doctors and physiotherapists. As a result, many clinicians have continued to practice via telemedicine. The purpose of the paper highlighted in this week’s FastFact was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of a self-administered examination [...]
Early sport specialisation and high training loads may increase the risk of injury

Early sport specialisation and high training loads may increase the risk of injury

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Early sport specialisation (ESS) is often considered to be a risk factor for injury, despite a lack of good evidence to support this relationship. This FastFact highlights a paper that attempts to determine whether ESS is indeed associated with an increased risk of injury by evaluating a group of American Collegiate athletes1. It has been [...]
Sport-related concussion (SRC) may take longer to recover than previously thought

Sport-related concussion (SRC) may take longer to recover than previously thought

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It is often said that the majority of cases of SRC recover predictably within 7 to 10 days of injury. This prospective cohort study, from one of our FIFA Medical Centres of Excellence and published in this month’s edition of the CJSM, challenges this commonly held belief1. This week’s FastFact highlights a prospective cohort study [...]
Assessing variation in shoe-surface traction over one season of elite football

Assessing variation in shoe-surface traction over one season of elite football

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Foot fixation - or the feeling that studs are trapped on the grass during a rotational movement - is a mechanism commonly associated with injury to the anterior cruciate ligament in football. Despite this, little information exists regarding the magnitude of traction forces at the shoe-surface interface. This FastFact investigates how traction (grip) between the [...]
The MLG-R muscle injury classification for hamstrings

The MLG-R muscle injury classification for hamstrings

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Muscle injuries are very common in sport. Over the past decade several classification and grading systems for muscle injuries have been published. This FastFact highlights the MLG-R system that has been developed in collaboration with the FC Barcelona medical department1. A good classification system is necessary, which allows to have reliable epidemiological data, which are [...]
Optimising the late-stage rehabilitation and return-to-sport training and testing process after ACL reconstruction

Optimising the late-stage rehabilitation and return-to-sport training and testing process after ACL reconstruction

5 comments
Most football players who rupture their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) undergo ACL reconstruction (ACLR) to restore knee stability and allow for return to play. However, outcomes after ACLR are often not ideal, in particular, there appears a high risk of re-injury while many players do not return to previous performance levels. This FastFact presents the [...]
Ankle dorsiflexion range of motion changes during a competitive season in professional players

Ankle dorsiflexion range of motion changes during a competitive season in professional players

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Several lower limb injuries, including lateral ankle sprains, anterior cruciate ligament ruptures and hamstring muscle injuries have been associated with restricted ankle dorsiflexion. This FastFact examines a paper which aimed to evaluate the acute (post-match) and chronic (throughout the season) effects of competition on ankle dorsiflexion range of motion in professional football players1. Restricted ankle [...]