Prevention of Hamstring Injuries in Football Players.

September 2, 2025 updated by: JORGE VELAZQUEZ SAORNIL, Universidad Católica de Ávila

Efficacy of Passive Manual Therapy, Active Therapy and Combined Therapy in Relation to the Prevention of Hamstring Injuries in Football Players. Randomised Clinical Trial.

Introduction: The prevalence of hamstring injuries in football is high, causing an increase in the number of casualties and a high socio-economic cost. Currently there are different treatment protocols for this muscle group, but there are often no comparisons of different types of passive, active and combined therapies, and their potential efficacy, in professional football players.

Objectives: To compare the efficacy of three different interventions; passive manual therapy, active therapy based on therapeutic exercise and combined therapy, in relation to hamstring injuries in professional football players.

Methodology: A simple Randomised Clinical Trial (RCT) was conducted (NCT04935398). After applying the selection criteria, a sample of 66 professional football players was obtained. They were divided into 3 intervention groups (A, B and C) with 22 participants in each group and were given passive manual therapy, active therapy (exercise) and combined therapy (sum of the above). The corresponding tests and questionnaires were evaluated to obtain data on hamstring flexibility and hip range of movement at three time periods: pre, post and post2.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

66

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Spain
      • Ávila, Spain, 05005
        • Universidad Católica de Ávila

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 40 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Professional football athletes.
  • Between 18-40 years of age.
  • Female gender.
  • Active in competitive season.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Neurological signs.
  • Inability to follow the evaluator's instructions.
  • Physical activity of less than 2 hours per week.
  • Serious lower limb injury during the study period.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: passive manual therapy
The physiotherapist performs passive techniques on the hamstring muscles of the footballers.
Other: Passive Neurodynamics and Passive axial hip mobilisation/distraction
The physiotherapist performs passive techniques on the hamstring muscles and the nerve that innervates the hamstring muscles.
Experimental: active therapy (exercise)
The physiotherapist does not perform passive techniques and it is the player who performs active techniques on the hamstring muscles.
Other: Active therapy
Active lumbopelvic CORE control exercises and active stretching of the ischiopelvic nerves
Other Names:
  • Active Neurodynamics and Therapeutic exercise
Active Comparator: combined therapy
The physiotherapist performs passive techniques and in addition the player performs active techniques on the hamstring muscles.
Other: 2.5.3. Combined therapy
The physiotherapist performs passive techniques on the hamstring muscles and the nerve that innervates the hamstring muscles and active lumbopelvic CORE control exercises and active stretching of the ischiopelvic nerves.
Other Names:
  • Passive and Active therapy

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
range of movements measurements
Time Frame: 1 month
Observe the degrees of mobility of the lower limb joints.
1 month

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Universidad Católica de Ávila

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

March 1, 2023

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 21, 2023

Study Completion (Actual)

April 28, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 6, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 6, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

March 17, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

September 3, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 2, 2025

Last Verified

September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 313

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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