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TRAINING HABITS AND INJURIES OF MASTERS’ LEVEL FOOTBALL PLAYERS: A PRELIMINARY REPORT. Newsham-West R, Button C, Milburn PD, et al. Physical Therapy in Sport 2009;10:63–66

A cross-sectional retrospective study design was used to survey male football players attending the 2008 New Zealand Masters Games. Information regarding player demographics, football injuries, football-related training and risk factors for injury were collected. A total of 199 players were recruited, with a median age of 44 years and a median football-playing history of 15 years.

Results: Irrespective of age, 112 players (84%) included a warm-up and 104 players (78%) included a stretching regime in their regular training programme. In the 12 months before the tournament, 128 football-related injuries were reported by 93 players (64 injuries/100 players, 46 injured players/100 players). The most frequently injured region was the lower limb, specifically the lower leg (n=23), ankle (n=18), hamstring (n=17), knee (n=15) and Achilles tendon (n=15).

sportEX comment Injury sites for this group reflect most football injuries. Despite all players including

some form of injury-prevention strategy in their training, a significant number of players experienced an injury in the 12 months before the tournament. It is clear that injury prevention needs to be revisited.

THE EFFECTS OF THE MULLIGAN SUSTAINED NATURAL APOPHYSEAL GLIDE (SNAG) MOBILISATION IN THE LUMBAR FLEXION RANGE OF ASYMPTOMATIC SUBJECTS AS MEASURED BY THE ZEBRIS CMS20 3-D MOTION ANALYSIS SYSTEM. Moutzouri M, Billis E, Strimpakos M, et al. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2008;9:131

This was a double-blinded study to ascertain whether the application of Mulligan’s Sustained Natural Apophyseal Glide (SNAG) technique increased lumbar flexion range of movement (ROM) and to measure the intra- and inter-day reliability of lumbar ROM employing the same procedure. A total of 49 asymptomatic volunteers were randomly assigned to receive either SNAG mobilisation (n=25) or a sham mobilisation (n=24). The SNAG technique was applied at the L3 and L4 spinal levels with active flexion in sitting by an experienced manual therapist. Three sets of ten repetitions at each of the

two spinal levels were performed. The sham mobilisation was similar to the SNAG but did not apply the appropriate direction or force. Lumbar ROM was measured by a three- dimensional electronic goniometer (Zebris CMS20), before and after each technique. For reliability, five measurements on two different days (1 week apart) were performed in 20 healthy subjects. Results: When both interventions were compared, there were no statistically significant results in ROM between groups. Nor were significant within-group differences observed. Intra- and inter-day reliability of flexion measurements was high, indicating

HAMSTRING LENGTH IN PATELLOFEMORAL PAIN SYNDROME. White LC, Dolphin P, et al. Physiotherapy 2009;95:Issue1:24-28

This study investigated whether there was a difference in hamstring length between patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome and healthy asymptomatic controls aged 18–35 years. Two groups were tested: one group diagnosed with patellofemoral pain syndrome (mean age 27 years; 6 males, 5 females) and one

group of asymptomatic controls (mean age 25 years; 13 males, 12 females). Hamstring length was evaluated using the passive knee extension method to measure popliteal angle. Results: Patients with patellofemoral pain had shorter hamstring muscles than asymptomatic controls.

sportEX comment

It is not clear whether the differences in hamstring length are a cause or an effect of the condition. Further research is needed, but in the meantime it is worth adding hamstring stretches to the treatment

programme. 4 sportEX medicine 2009;41(Jul):4-6

acceptable clinical applicability. Although the Zebris proved to be a reliable device for measuring lumbar flexion ROM, SNAG mobilisation did not demonstrate significant differences in flexion ROM when compared with sham mobilisation.

sportEX comment This is another one that we probably

don’t want to believe. The gadget is good for measuring lumbar flexion, but whether any actual changes in ROM are caused by gross movement or the extra pressure applied by the therapist appears to be in doubt.