ArticleKnee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA2023
Video analysis of Achilles tendon ruptures in professional male football (soccer) reveals underlying injury patterns and provides strategies for injury prevention.
Article in Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Changes in sex distribution in Achilles tendon rupture literature over 74 years: A systematic review.Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA · 2026Pooled it
- A systematic review and network meta-analysis on the effectiveness of exercise-based interventions for reducing the injury incidence in youth team-sport players. Part 2: an analysis by movement patterns.Annals of medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Acceleration and Injury-Frame Biomechanics in Achilles Tendon Rupture: A Systematic Review.Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2026Review
- Achilles Tendon Injuries in Major League Soccer: A 10-year Analysis of Injury Rate, Return to Play, and Performance Metrics.Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine · 2026Article
- Effects of Mechanical Loading on the Structure and Function of the Achilles Tendon: From Homeostatic Adaptation to Pathological Degeneration.Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2026Review
- Patterns of ankle injury in soccer: MRI clues to traumatic mechanism.Skeletal radiology · 2025Review
- Correlations Between Achilles Tendon Stiffness and Jumping Performance: A Comparative Study of Soccer and Basketball Athletes.Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2025Article
- Sports injuries in elite football players: classification, prevention, and treatment strategies update.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2025Review
- Systematic video analysis of shoulder dislocations in professional male football (soccer): Injury mechanisms, situational and kinematic patterns.Journal of experimental orthopaedics · 2024Article
- Four distinct patterns of anterior cruciate ligament injury in women's professional football (soccer): a systematic video analysis of 37 match injuries.British journal of sports medicine · 2024Article
- Appraising the Methodological Quality of Sports Injury Video Analysis Studies: The QA-SIVAS Scale.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeIn professional football (soccer), Achilles tendon ruptures are severe injuries. Video analysis promotes a better understanding of the underlying situational and biomechanical patterns, and provides a roadmap for future research to improve the management and prevention of Achilles tendon ruptures. The purpose of this study was to identify injury patterns contributing to acute Achilles tendon ruptures in professional male football players.
methodsProfessional male football players with an acute Achilles tendon rupture were identified using an online database. For every in-competition injury, the corresponding football match was detected. Video footage of the injury was accessed using Wyscout.com or publicly available video databases. Situational patterns and injury biomechanics of the injury frame were independently analysed by two reviewers using a standardised checklist and a motion analysis software. Finally, consensus was reached to describe the main injury patterns of Achilles tendon ruptures in professional male football players.
resultsThe search identified video footage of 80 Achilles tendon ruptures in 78 players. Most injuries (94%) occurred through indirect or non-contact mechanisms. The kinematic analysis revealed characteristic joint positions at the time of injury consisting of hip extension, knee extension, ankle dorsiflexion, foot abduction, and foot pronation in most cases. The underlying direction of movement was from flexion to extension (knee) and from plantarflexion to dorsiflexion (ankle). Player actions identified as main injury patterns were stepping back (26%), landing (20%), running/sprinting (18%), jumping (13%), and starting (10%).
conclusionMost Achilles tendon ruptures in professional male football players are closed-chain indirect or non-contact injuries. Sudden loading to the plantarflexor musculotendinous unit remains to be the main component for most cases. By achieving a better understanding of underlying injury mechanisms, this study provides new strategies for the prevention of Achilles tendon ruptures. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.