Evaluating a standardised tool to explore the nature and extent of foot and ankle injuries in amateur and semi-professional footballers

• Most research on foot/ankle injuries among footballers is from professional players.
• We developed a new questionnaire suitable for use among non-professional players.
• The questionnaire was acceptable and well-answered by non-professional footballers.
• These players reported a high number of foot/ankle injuries.

BackgroundMost studies of football injuries include professional players and data have been collected in without a single validated, standardised tool. We aimed to develop a new standardised questionnaire for assessing injuries among non-professional footballers and pilot its use.MethodA questionnaire was developed using input from footballers, healthcare professionals and triangulation from the literature. The new tool was piloted among players representing amateurs and semi-professionals. Their comments were used iteratively to improve the instrument.ResultsThe development phase produced a 33-item questionnaire collecting quantitative and qualitative data. In the pilot phase, 42 questionnaires were distributed, 34 (81%) returned. Respondents reported total of 273 football-related injuries, 114 affecting the foot/ankle (70 at the ankle and 44 at the foot). In total, 44% of respondents had suffered one or more foot/ankle injuries in the past 12 months.ConclusionWe developed a new standardised tool which we found to be well-completed by young male footballers in semi-professional and amateur settings with an excellent response rate. Our results suggested that foot/ankle injuries were common, larger studies in non-professionals are needed to identify risk factors for injury and develop pragmatic advice for prevention.