The prevalence of tendinopathy in a professional Australian netball team: a Pilot study

Abstract

Background: Netball movement patterns place high energy-storage-and-release demands on lower limb tendons. Tendon and peri-tendon pathology is frequently reported in other court sports, e.g., basketball and volleyball, which have similar movement patterns. To date, few studies have focussed on identifying the prevalence of tendinopathy in professional netballers. The aim of this study is to identify the period prevalence of tendinopathy over two Australian Super Netball seasons. The second aim was to describe the context of the injury, pertaining to identifiable mechanisms and injury consequence relative to other injuries reported. Methods: Fifteen professional netball players from a NSW-based team were included. Athlete Management System (AMS) data from the 2018 and 2019 seasons were extracted including: OSICS code, mechanism, body part and structure, injury type, and time in altered training. Injuries were only included if they were reported as a new diagnosis. Period prevalence was calculated the percentage of diagnosed tendon injuries relative to the total number of rostered players during each season. Tendon injuries as a proportion of total injuries was also reported. A single athlete was able to contribute multiple times to the numerator, provided the tendon diagnoses were for different tendons. Injury site, days in recovery and altered training were reported as percentage of total tendon prevalence and mean ± standard deviation. Results: The period prevalence for tendon injuries throughout the study period was 53.3%. Tendon injuries accounted for 11.7% (n=15) of all injuries reported. Eight athletes experienced tendon injuries: two athletes experienced two tendinopathies and two athletes experienced three. Achilles tendinopathy was the second most common injury reported overall, accounting for 50% of all tendinopathies. Days spent recovering from tendinopathy were 92.2 ± 115.0 days. Tendinopathies were the second most costly injury with respect to days spent recovering (sprains/strains 107.8 ± 126.6 days). All reported tendinopathies had no clear injury mechanism identified and occurred during both training and competition. Discussion: Tendinopathy is a prevalent and time-costly injury in a professional netball team. Several athletes within the team reported multiple tendon injuries. This suggests there may be a systematic biomechanical issue in some athletes, or some playing positions may be more at risk than others. The lack of clear mechanism indicates closer monitoring may be required to fully determine netball-specific related risk factors. Further research will be greatly beneficial in identifying potential risk factors and optimising injury management in professional female sport. Conflict of interest statement: My co-authors and I acknowledge that we have no conflict of interest with the submission of this abstract.