Clinical predictors of time to return to competition and of recurrence following hamstring strain in elite Australian footballers

Abstract

Objective: To investigate early clinical predictors of time to return to competition and of recurrence following hamstring strain. Design: Prospective observational study. Setting: Elite level of Australian football competition. Participant: 59 players who suffered a hamstring strain in 2002 season. Predictors: Clinical assessment by a physiotherapist and questionnaire. Main outcome measures: Time taken to return to play and recurrence of hamstring injury within 3 weeks. Results: Players taking more than 1 day to walk painfree were signifi cantly more likely (p=0.018) to take longer than 3 weeks to return to competition (adjusted odds ratio 4.0; 95% CI 1.3 to 12.6). Nine players (15.2%) expe..