Article Text
Abstract
Background The cause of heel pain among soccer players is multifactorial and is related to repetitive microtrauma due to impact forces involving technical moves, but also the playground, the exercise mode, the recovery time, the climatic conditions and the footwear used.
Aim To investigate the aetiology of plantar heel pain of soccer players with the objective of proposing an example of guidelines for treatment.
Methods We investigated the prevalence and characteristics of inferior heel pain of 1473 professional, semiprofessional and amateur players. All evaluated subjects were submitted to a specific rehabilitation protocol that involved advanced physical therapies and viscoelastic insoles depending on the aetiology of pain.
Results Clinical and instrumental examinations revealed that 960 of 1473 athletes had inferior heel pain. These patients were divided into seven groups based on aetiology: sural nerve compression, abductor digiti minimi compression, atrophy and inflammation of the fat pad, plantar fasciitis, stress injury of the heel spur, stress fracture of the heel bone and heel spur. The proposed rehabilitation treatment aims for a reduction of pain and an early return to sports, with excellent results.
Conclusions According to what was observed in the present study, related also to the specific treatment of inferior heel pain, and considering the technological progress achieved in recent years, we can now propose an integrated therapeutic approach to treatment of heel pain, properly differentiated according to specific aetiology.
- biology of skeletal muscle
- football
- orthopaedics
- overuse
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Footnotes
Contributors RS participated in the planning and coordination of the study. MM participated in its planning. SMC participated in the clinical part of the study, in particular on the medical aspect, and helped to write the manuscript and the statistical analysis. SMC participated in the clinical part of the study and in writing the manuscript. EA participated in the clinical part of the study. CR participated in the data collection. RGB participated in the clinical part of the study, in particular on the medical aspect, and in the coordination of the study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Funding This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent Obtained.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.