PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Matt Taberner
AU  - Nicol van Dyk
AU  - Tom Allen
AU  - Chris Richter
AU  - Carl Howarth
AU  - Simon Scott
AU  - Daniel D Cohen
TI  - Physical preparation and return to sport of the football player with a tibia-fibula fracture: applying the ‘control-chaos continuum’
AID  - 10.1136/bmjsem-2019-000639
DP  - 2019 Oct 01
TA  - BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine
PG  - e000639
VI  - 5
IP  - 1
4099  - http://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/5/1/e000639.short
4100  - http://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/5/1/e000639.full
SO  - BMJ OPEN SP EX MED2019 Oct 01; 5
AB  - Contact in elite football can result in severe injury such as traumatic fracture. Limited information exists regarding the rehabilitation and return to sport (RTS) of these injuries especially in elite football. We outline the RTS of an elite English Premier League footballer following a tibia-fibula fracture including gym-based physical preparation and the use of ‘control-chaos continuum’ as a framework for on-pitch sport-specific conditioning, development of technical skills while returning the player to pre-injury chronic running loads considering the qualitative nature of movement in competition. Strength and power diagnostics were used to back up clinical reasoning and decision-making throughout rehabilitation and the RTS process. The player returned to full team training after 7.5 months, completed 90 min match-play after 9 months and remains injury-free 11 months post-RTS.