Correlation between Level of Functional Ability and Sports Performance among Football Players with Chronic Ankle Instability (CAI)

Background: Chronic ankle instability (CAI) is the most common injury among the football players and it occurs with the players who have history of repetitive ankle sprain. This will result in limitation of functional ability and sport performance of a football player. However, most of the sport rehabilitation focused on the sport performance of an athletic after ankle sprain injury and the functional ability was not stressed on during the return to sport process. It is because the relationship between the level functional ability and sport performance among the football players with CAI is still unclear.

Objectives: To determine the relationship between the level of functional ability and sports performance among the football players with chronic ankle instability (CAI).

Study Design: Correlation study.

Methods: Forty two (n=42) of football players were involved in this study by convenience sampling design. Football players filled in the questionnaire which was Foot and Ankle Ability Measure (FAAM) which included the activities of daily living (ADL) subscale and sports subscale. The total score of each subscale for all the players were calculated and Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient was used to analyze the relationship.

Results: A total of twenty five (60%) of the football players had higher ADL score than the sports score while seventeen (40%) of them had higher sports score than ADL score. The mean score for ADL subscale was 79.63±20.64 (%) whereas for sports subscale was 75.59±25.43 (%). Pearson’s correlation was .92 (r=.92) and it is significant at .01 level (p <.00).

Conclusion: There is a significant relationship between the level of functional ability and sports performance among the football players with chronic ankle instability (CAI).

Implication: It provides a guideline for the physiotherapy or football player to plan a more structured rehabilitation in order to improve the quality of return to sport performance.