Male collegiate soccer athletes with severe ankle laxity display increased knee abduction during side-cutting tasks compared to those with only perceived ankle instability

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to examine lower limb kinematics during a side-cutting task in male collegiate soccer athletes with severe ankle laxity. Forty-seven participants with a history of ankle sprains and perceived ankle instability were categorized into non-laxity (n = 17), laxity (n = 19), and severe laxity (n = 11) groups using stress radiography tests. Three-dimensional kinematic data during the stance phase of a 45° side-cutting task were analysed. The frontal plane kinematics of the knee significantly differed between the three groups (p < 0.05). The severe laxity group exhibited a greater abduction angle than the non-laxity group (p < 0.05). The horizontal and sagittal plane kinematics of the rearfoot differed between the three groups during the end of the stance phase (p < 0.05). Our data suggest that collegiate soccer athletes with both perceived ankle instability and severe ankle laxity exhibit greater knee abduction movement during a 45° side-cutting task compared to those with only perceived ankle instability.

KEYWORDS:

• Ankle laxity
• ankle sprains
• joint instability
• kinematics
• lateral ligament

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr Katsunori Okano and Ryuji Nemoto for their assistance with the stress radiography examinations, the players of the University of Tsukuba Football Club for participating in the study, and Editage (www.editage.jp) for English language editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential competing interests are reported by the author(s).

Research ethics

The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Tsukuba (No. 30-21) and was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI under Grant [number JP18K17709]. The sponsor was not involved in the study design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of data, in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to submit the article for publication.