Sports Medicine

Hip and groin injuries represent about 11% of all sport injuries, with higher risk in older males and during matches

Across 71 largely football-focused prospective studies totaling over 9.4 million exposure hours, hip and groin injury incidence was 0.71 per 1000 hours. These injuries constituted 11% of all reported injuries, with hip adductor injuries alone accounting for 6% and 0.41 per 1000 hours. Injury burden was 11.5 days lost per 1000 hours, and seasonal prevalence reached 19%, indicating substantial impact on player availability. Incidence increased with higher average cohort age, was 1.8 times higher in males than females, and 6.5 times higher in matches than training. 1

Tiered metabolic workup for bone stress injury focuses on basic labs for all and expanded testing for higher-risk athletes

This review synthesizes evidence into a practical algorithm for metabolic evaluation of athletes presenting with bone stress injury. All athletes with bone stress injury should at minimum be considered for 25-hydroxyvitamin D, complete blood count, and an iron panel with ferritin. Those with low energy availability features, including multiple Triad or RED-S risk factors, should first address energy intake and training load, and be considered for DXA and additional labs. Recurrent or multiple bone stress injuries, surgically fixed lesions, or concerning clinical features warrant broader, sex- and context-specific metabolic testing. 2

Achilles tendinopathy shows reduced intra-tendinous sliding that increases with a toes-out foot position during dynamic exercise

In 20 individuals with Achilles tendinopathy compared with 20 healthy controls, intra-tendinous sliding was reduced during multiple dynamic heel-rise and squat exercises. Speckle-tracking ultrasound quantified non-uniform displacement between superficial and deep tendon layers to estimate intra-tendinous sliding. Across tasks, a toes-out foot position increased intra-tendinous sliding relative to neutral, and some exercises elicited greater sliding than others. The authors propose intra-tendinous sliding as a marker of tendon health and a mechanistic target for rehabilitation. 3

Female athletes more often show T-wave inversion and longer QTc, yet isolated V1–V3 inversion rarely indicates serious disease

This meta-analysis included 85 cross-sectional studies of 19,069 female and 57,745 male athletes aged 16–40 years undergoing screening ECGs. Female athletes had higher odds of abnormal T-wave inversion and were 5.6 times more likely to show isolated T-wave inversion in V1–V3 than males. No female athletes and only two male athletes with isolated V1–V3 inversion were diagnosed with conditions linked to sudden cardiac death. Female athletes also had QTc intervals about 16 ms longer than males. 4