Hamstring strain injury prevention in high-performance football players

Abstract

The overarching aim of this doctoral thesis was to investigate how hamstring strain injury risk in high-performance football players is influenced by the organisation, modulation and degradation of sprinting mechanics under different task related and fatigue induced constraints. To address this aim, four studies were conducted using biomechanical modelling, time continuous analyses and coordination based approaches: (i) how wearable resistance modulates the distribution of hamstring mechanical stress during sprinting; (ii) whether targeted running technique interventions reorganise intersegmental coordination patterns during football specific sprint tasks; (iii) the relevance of running technique as a strategy to mitigate hamstring injury risk; and (iv) how neuromuscular fatigue alters sprint mechanics. Across studies, the findings demonstrate that hamstring mechanical demand during sprinting is highly sensitive to changes in movement organisation. Wearable resistance induced temporally localised modulation of hamstring mechanical stress. Running technique interventions were associated with reorganisation of intersegmental coordination patterns and coordination variability. Conversely, fatigue emerged as a destabilising constraint that degrades coordination and concentrates mechanical demand. In conclusion, this thesis advances an integrative neuromechanical framework in which hamstring strain injury risk during sprinting in professional football is shaped not solely by the magnitude of mechanical demand, but by its temporal organisation, adaptive modulation and robustness under fatigue. By integrating biomechanical, neuromuscular and coordinative perspectives, the present work provides a more nuanced and ecologically valid foundation for technique-informed, constraint-based hamstring injury prevention strategies in high-performance football.