Impact of Chronic Ankle Instability on Biomechanical Parameters of Gait Initiation in Semipro Football Players

The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of chronic ankle instability on biomechanical parameters of gait initiation in semipro football players.

A total of 26 young were divided into two equal groups of normal and injured. To measure the biomechanical parameters, motion analysis system (Qualisys model with eight cameras) and two force plate system (Kistler 9286A) were used. We measured istance, time, and speed of gait initiation, swing and double stance time, speed of clearing the swing limb from ground, hip, knee and ankle range of motion and center of mass displacement in medio-lateral, anteroposterior, and vertical directions in  the current study.

The results showed significant increase in the knee (p = 0.016) flexion range of motion and significant decrease in center of mass displacement in vertical ((p=0.00) and medio-lateral (p=0.00) directions of gait initiation.

The results of our study did not show any significant change in injured joint and many other parameters. Thus, considering the significant changes that occur in adjacent joint, it is recommended that rehabilitation specialists use global training protocol for both the injured and non-injured limbs of chronic ankle instability patients to prevent motor control change and to restore proper motor control following a peripheral joint injury.