The challenge has been set for the football medicine and science community by the findings of the most recent Football Research Group study. Hamstring injuries have almost doubled during the last 20 years, and now make up 24% of all injuries in men’s professional football. With training and match demands ever increasing, the pressure to improve the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of these injuries will continue to grow.

Committing to research and development may present the opportunity to innovate our way out of the hamstring crisis. Several clubs are now engaging in research, and Aston Villa’s recent study into hamstring injuries identified that ‘T-junction’ injuries present a particularly high risk of recurrence. In this edition of Football Medicine & Performance, Fearghal Kerin details the clinical challenges of this injury sub-type and presents potential solutions for its management.

Hamstring injuries are not the only muscle injury presenting problems in football, with quadricep injuries continuing to feature highly. We are delighted Dr Carles Pedret has given an in-depth insight into the importance of an accurate MRI diagnosis for these injuries in order to manage expectations with respect to prognosis and management.

With so many unknowns around what the impact of the timing of this year’s World Cup will be, it’s feared that the accumulation of fatigue will lead to even more muscle injuries in the new year. We hope the information in this edition may give you the tools to approach these problems with new insight, leading to better care for the players.

Enjoy reading the 41st edition of Football Medicine & Performance.

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