Relationship between selected physiological characteristics and hamstring injuries in amateur male soccer players

Hamstrings injuries are common in track and field athletics and in other sports that involve considerable kicking movements, such as rugby and  soccer. This study investigated the relationship between selected physiological characteristics and the occurrence of hamstring injuries in amateur male soccer players. A prospective, but descriptive design was utilised in which 89 amateur male soccer players (aged 18-35 years) who gave informed consent, were purposively sampled from the Cape Town Local Football Association (LFA), South Africa. The players performed functional assessments at the start of the soccer season, before injury occurred, which included anthropometric measurements, an isokinetic evaluation of lower extremity muscle variables (i.e., both knee and hip peak torque at 60º•sec-1), and a hamstring flexibility test. A hamstring injury incidence rate of 4.5 % was found and the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient yielded statistically significant correlations between time to peak torque (TPT) on the right leg with the TPT on the left leg (r = 0.74, p = 0.00). Furthermore, the TPT on both the right (r = 0.21, p = 0.03) and left legs (r = 0.27, p = 0.01) correlated significantly with hamstrings injury, but the correlations were weak. Regression analysis indicated that TPT significantly  predicted hamstrings injury occurrence (OR = 1.005; p = 0.027) among the soccer players. In conclusion, there was a significant relationship between selected physiological characteristics and hamstrings injury occurrence. Furthermore, TPT was a significant predictor of hamstrings injury among  the male soccer players. Keywords: Hamstrings, injuries, isokinetic, strength, soccer