THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE FOOT AND ANKLE STRUCTURE WITH OVERUSE INJURIES IN LICENSED FOOTBALLERS, A PROSPECTIVE COHORT

ABSTRACT The main purpose of this study was to compare the values determined in the clinical examination of the foot and ankle and the plantar pressure measurements of the foot in athletes who developed an overuse-type disability and in athletes who did not develop overuse-type disability, and was to find factors that might predispose to disability, during the one-year follow-up. 100 licensed football players were included in the study. Presence of joint hypermobility, foot posture assessment, ankle and first metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint range of motion (ROM) measurements, pedobarographic plantar pressure assessment of foot was carried out. Then, the footballers were followed for 12 months for the development of new foot and ankle overuse injuries and the clinical and pedobarographic data of the footballers with at least one injury were compared with the group without injury. We found asymmetric pressure distribution between the preferred and non-preferred foot in the group who had an injury in the pedobarographic static foot plantar pressure measurements (p = .040) . When we compared the ROM values of footballers who had an injury and footballers who did not have an injury, we found a significant limitation in the group that suffered an injury, in the ankle eversion, first MTP joint dorsiflexion and ankle plantarflexion degrees (p = .029, p = .023, p=.044, respectively) . These findings suggest that impairments in foot plantar pressure distribution and limitations in ankle and foot joint ROM may be risk factors for the development of foot and ankle overuse injury.