Achilles tendon rupture in professional football player. An epidemiological study in european championship with a mid-term follow-up

Background. To evaluate the role of age in Achilles tendon rupture (ATR) and the impact of ATR on professional football (soccer) players. The data considered were age, body mass index (BMI), position, injury history, affected side, return to play (RTP) rate and time and percentage of played minutes per season (MPS) for the two pre-injury and two post-injury seasons. The level of play, occurrence of re-ruptures and retirement from football were recorded. Methods. Professional male football players who suffered an ATR between 2010 and 2020 were included. Data were retrieved through the publicly available media-based platform Transfermarkt. Missing data were searched for through other publicly available sources. Results. In all, 55 players out of 77 satisfied the inclusion criteria. The mean age at the time of injury was 28.7 ± 4.1 years (range, 19–39). The RTP rate was 92.7%, and the mean RTP time was 209 ± 65 days (range, 116–418 days). Four players retired after the injury. Six players sustained an Achilles tendon re-rupture at a mean of 5.45 ± 2.8 years follow-up, and six players did not maintain the same level, instead playing in lower categories. The mean pre-operative MPS was 56% ± 24% and 49.5% ± 27.7% two and one season, respectively, before the injury. The mean MPS decreased to 36.1% ± 23.2% and 39.3% ± 24.2% in the first and second post-injury seasons, respectively. Conclusions. Players’ performance in terms of MPS showed a decrease in the two seasons following the injury. Players’ ages influenced the differences in terms of MPS between the seasons analysed and correlated significantly with retirement from professional football.