Plantar fasciitis in soccer players—A systemic review

Abstract

Soccer is one of the most popular sports in the world. Players often suffer a variety of injuries, the most common being injuries to muscles and tendons. It is striking that with soccer, being the most practiced sport, and considering that most injuries occur in the lower extremities, plantar fasciitis (PF) is not one of the most frequent injuries (at least in terms of clinical data collected). The purpose of this review was to provide a comprehensive update of the topic “plantar fasciitis” focusing on soccer players. The review was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA (Preferred Reportiog ltems for Systmiatic reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement. PubMed, Cochrane Library and Scopus were researched. PICO (Patient, Population or Problem; Intervention; Comparison; and Outcome) components were identified. The keywords used were “plantar fasciitis”, “plantar fasciitis and sport”, “plantar fasciitis risk factors”, “plantar fasciitis soccer” and “plantar fasciitis football players”. With respect to the objective proposed for the research, we found eight specific articles focused on soccer. Of these, five were general reviews discussing the different methods of treatment of this pathology, and we have only found three studies that focused on PF in soccer, with two of them referring to a clinical case whereby the report and discussion only dealt with the specific treatment followed by the soccer player. After reviewing the manuscripts included in this work, we were surprised that there is no data in which the Silfverskiöld test was performed, as this test explores the passive mobility of the ankle and the degree of dorsiflexion in the supine position. We concluded that soccer players suffer pain in the sole of the foot compatible with plantar fasciitis; however, as indicated by Suzue et al., it is often not diagnosed because the athlete does not consider performing the clinical examinations necessary for its diagnosis. The shortage of reported publications in soccer may mask other PF-associated injuries.