Is Foot Type an Indicator of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury in Football Players?

Abstract

Background: Prevention of sports injuries requires a comprehensive analysis of intrinsic and extrinsic factors of injuries in athletes. Pre-participation, evaluation, biomechanical assessment and new technology are helpful in providing useful information about the cause and mechanism of sports injury and strategies for injury prevention. However, there have been only few previous investigations which can conclusively correlate certain foot types with specific knee injury. Objective: To determine any relationship between foot type and ACL injury. Method: A case-control study design was adopted for this clinical study to investigate foot- type as a risk factor for ACL injury. 35 professional football players with a surgical history of ACL reconstruction and 35 professional football players without any history of ACL injury participated in our study. Foot types were determined by measuring their medial longitudinal arch angle and rearfoot-leg eversion angle. Questionnaire which included other variables of ACL injury were filled and analysed to eliminate their interference in this study. Odds ratio was used as reliable statistical tool to estimate the relative risk. Result: There was a significant relationship between pronated foot type as a risk factor for ACL injury. Conclusion: This suggests that pronated foot is a risk factor for ACL injury in football players.