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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Joints 2019; 07(03): 115-126
DOI: 10.1055/s-0040-1712113
Review Article

Hamstring Injuries Prevention in Soccer: A Narrative Review of Current Literature

Gian Nicola Bisciotti
1   Qatar Orthopaedic and Sport Medicine Hospital, FIFA Center of Excellence, Doha, Qatar
,
Karim Chamari
1   Qatar Orthopaedic and Sport Medicine Hospital, FIFA Center of Excellence, Doha, Qatar
,
Emanuele Cena
1   Qatar Orthopaedic and Sport Medicine Hospital, FIFA Center of Excellence, Doha, Qatar
,
Giulia Carimati
2   Orthopedic Knee and Sports Traumatology Department, Humanitas Research Hospital, Rozzano, Italy
,
Alessandro Bisciotti
3   Centro Studi Kinemove, Pontremoli, Italy
,
Andrea Bisciotti
3   Centro Studi Kinemove, Pontremoli, Italy
,
Alessandro Quaglia
2   Orthopedic Knee and Sports Traumatology Department, Humanitas Research Hospital, Rozzano, Italy
,
Piero Volpi
2   Orthopedic Knee and Sports Traumatology Department, Humanitas Research Hospital, Rozzano, Italy
4   FC Internazionale, Milan, Italy
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Abstract

Hamstring injuries and reinjuries are one of the most important sport lesions in several sport activities including soccer, Australian football, track and field, rugby, and in general in all sport activities requiring sprinting and acceleration. However, it is important to distinguish between the lesions of the biceps femoris and semitendinosus and semimembranosus. Indeed, three muscles representing the hamstring complex have a very different injury etiology and consequently require different prevention strategies. This fact may explain, at least in part, the high incidence of reinjuries. In soccer, hamstring injuries cause an important rate of time loss (i.e., in average 15–21 matches missed per club per season). The hamstring injury risk factors may be subdivided in three categories: “primary injury risk factors” (i.e., the risk factors mainly causing a first lesion), “recurrent injury risk factors” (i.e., the risk that can cause a reinjury), and bivalent injury risk factors” (i.e., the risk factors that can cause both primary injuries and reinjuries). The high incidence of hamstring lesions caused consequently an important increase in hamstring injury research. However, although the prevention has increased paradoxically, epidemiological data do not show a loss in injuries and/or reinjuries but, on the contrary, they show an increase in hamstring injuries. This apparent paradox highlights the importance both of the improvement in the prevention programs quality and the criteria for return to play after hamstring injury.

Keywords

injury mechanism - risk factors - anatomical location - biomechanics


Publication History

Received: 04 November 2017

Accepted: 13 April 2020

Article published online:
25 May 2020

© 2020. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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