Abstract
Objectives
To explore relationships between groin pain and adductor squeeze strength in male
academy football players over a 14-week period.
Design
Longitudinal cohort study.
Methods
Weekly monitoring of youth male football players consisted of reporting groin pain
and testing long lever adductor squeeze strength. Players who reported groin pain
at any time during the study period were stratified into the “groin pain” group while
players who did not report pain remained in the “no groin pain” group. Baseline squeeze
strength was retrospectively compared between groups. Players that developed groin
pain were examined via repeated measures ANOVA at four timepoints: baseline, last
squeeze before pain, pain onset, and return to pain-free.
Results
53 players were included (age 14.4 ± 1.6 years). Baseline squeeze strength was not
different between players in the “groin pain” (n = 29, 4.35 ± 0.89 N/kg) versus “no
groin pain” group (n = 24, 4.33 ± 0.90 N/kg, p = 0.83). At a group level, players
with no groin pain maintained similar adductor squeeze strength throughout 14 weeks
(p > 0.05). Compared to baseline (4.33 ± 0.90 N/kg), players with groin pain had decreased
adductor squeeze strength at the last squeeze before pain (3.91 ± 0.85 N/kg, p = 0.003)
and at pain onset (3.58 ± 0.78 N/kg, p < 0.001). Adductor squeeze strength at the
point where pain subsided (4.06 ± 0.95 N/kg) was not different from baseline (p = 0.14).
Conclusions
Decreases in adductor squeeze strength manifest one-week prior to groin pain onset
and further decrease at pain onset. Weekly adductor squeeze strength may be an early
detector for groin pain in youth male football players.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 10, 2023
Accepted:
February 7,
2023
Received in revised form:
January 18,
2023
Received:
May 27,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2023 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
