A Rehabilitation Algorithm After Lateral Ankle Sprains in Professional Football (Soccer): An approach based on clinical practice guidelines

Lateral ankle sprain (LAS) is one of the most common types of injury in professional

football (soccer) players with high risk of recurrence. The rehabilitation after LAS in

professional football players is often still time-based and relies on anecdotal experience

of clinicans. There is still a lack of utilization of criteria-based rehabilitation concepts

after LAS in professional football.

The aims of this clinical commentary are (1) to critically discuss the need for

criteria-based rehabilitation concepts after LAS in professional football players, (2) to

highlight the current lack of these approaches and (3) to present a novel clinical

guideline-based rehabilitation algorithm.

Short time-loss (15 days) and high recurrence rate (17%) raise the question of

trivialization of LAS in professional football. Despite consequences for many stakeholders

involved (players, teams, clubs, insurers), there is still a lack of of criteria-based,

step-by-step approaches.

The use of a criteria-based rehabilitation approach might reduce the high recurrence rate

after LAS in professional football players and will lead, in turn, to increased long-term

player availability. Practical experiences of he authors demonstrate the feasibility of such

an approach. The effectiveness of this novel rehabilitation algorithm remains to be

evaluated in future studies.

Level of Evidence: 5