The Effect of Therapeutic Exercises and Ultrasound for Rehabilitation of Partially Injured Hamstring Muscles in Elite Soccer (Football) Players: A Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.
Kamal Hadib Abdulridha, Iman Kadhim Hani Al-Tameemi, Alhasan Hadi Abdulhameed Alzaidi, Juan Nicolás Cuenca-Zaldivar, Alejandra Aguilar Latorre, Isabel Gómez-Soria, Estela Calatayud
PMID 41939953WHAT IT FOUND
This is a plan for a trial, not a finished study.
No players have been treated and no results are reported, so there is nothing here yet that changes what you do.
What this paper is
This is the published plan for a randomised trial that has not been carried out yet. It sets out how 150 elite male soccer players from eight clubs in the Iraqi league will be sorted into two groups (75 each) after a partial hamstring injury: one group doing a six-week supervised exercise programme plus therapeutic ultrasound, the other doing the same exercise programme without ultrasound. It describes the exercises, the ultrasound settings, the strength, muscle activity and pain measurements, and how time to return to play will be counted. No players have been treated and no results are reported, so there is nothing here to change your practice on.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the planned design as evidence that ultrasound helps. The authors themselves say the existing evidence is mixed and that it is equally possible ultrasound will add nothing to exercise.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →