Abstract
Objectives
To determine the incidence, prevalence and impact of shoulder injury in elite South
African cricketers.
Design
Prospective longitudinal cohort study.
Methods
One hundred and six senior national/franchise cricketers completed a pre-season Kerlan-Jobe
Orthopaedic Clinic shoulder and elbow (KJOC) score. All injuries sustained during
the 2016/2017 season were captured on an injury reporting system. Injuries were verified
by the respective squad physiotherapist at the end of the season and post-season KJOC
score was obtained from all the players.
Results
Eighteen percent (95% CI: 11–25%) of cricketers sustained a shoulder injury, at a
rate of 0.19 injuries per player per year. Annual injury prevalence was 1.1%. Shoulder
injury occurred primarily while throwing (58%). Fielding performance was maintained
by adapting throwing technique (58%) or fielding position (21%). Thirty-two percent
of shoulder injuries resulted in time lost to matches and/or training. A history of
shoulder injury increased the risk of sustaining another injury by 1.91 times (95%
CI: 1.73–2.15). Irrespective of injury, cricketers demonstrated consistently low pre-
(78.5 ± 15.6) and post-season (81.2 ± 17.1) KJOC scores. Pre-season KJOC scores were
significantly lower (r2 = 0.106, p = 0.001) in those cricketers with a history of shoulder injury. Cricketers
who sustained a seasonal shoulder injury had significantly lower (r2 = 0.112, p < 0.001) post-season KJOC scores, indicating persistent shoulder pain
or dysfunction.
Conclusion
This is the first study to report both time- and non-time-loss shoulder injury in
elite South African cricketers. All non-time-loss shoulder injuries compromised primary
skill, while some resulted in changes to throwing technique and fielding position.
Thus shoulder injury, whether it results in time loss or not, potentially impacts
match performance.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 11, 2019
Accepted:
May 7,
2019
Received in revised form:
May 3,
2019
Received:
November 24,
2018
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
