Richmond Physiotherapy Clinic

Hamstring Strain; Assessment and Injury Research

Price Warren is an APA titled Sports Physiotherapist and a Master of Physiotherapy (Hamstring Strains AFL Football Injuries-original research) from the Centre for Health, Exercise and Sports Medicine at the University of Melbourne. He is a member of Sports Medicine Australia, the Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy Association and is a past president and ongoing member of Sports Physiotherapy Australia. Price was physiotherapist to the Richmond Football Club (1988-89) and Melbourne Football Club (1991-1999).His research involved scientific collaboration with Victoria House Radiology and Monash University.

Price is one of the few physiotherapists in clinical practice to have scientific manuscripts published in 2 of the most prestigious peer reviewed Sports Medicine journals in the world.

Hamstring strains

1. Hamstring strains - early clinical predictors of time to return to competition and potential recurrenc.

Conclusion: Several new and previously unquantified parameters should be included in a clinical assessment to aid in prognosis; in particular time to walk pain-free and previous hamstring injury are predictors of time to return to competition and recurrence, respectively.

Hamstring muscle strains – early clinical predictors of time to return to competition and recurrence in elite Australian Footballers; Masters Thesis.pdf

2. A Comparison Between Clinical Assessment and MRI of Acute Hamstring Injuries.
Published in the American Sports Medicine Journal (June 2006) with a clinical summary published in Sport Health (Spring 2008).

Conclusion: This study shows that an MRI is not required for estimating the duration of rehabilitation of an acute minor or moderate hamstring injury in professional footballers (ie the physiotherapy examination is more accurate than MRI).

Clinical Summary: Is an MRI necessary in Hamstring Strains SportHealth2008.pdf
Comparison Between Clinical Assessment and MRI of Acute Hamstring Injuries American Sports Medicine Journal.pdf

3. Hamstring strains – The Influence of Rehabilitation on Recurrence Rate in Elite Australian Footballers

Summary;Training consisting of running drills, specific hamstring strengthening and core stability drills should be engaged in every second day, particularly in players thought to be at risk of re-injury. Players should stretch two to three times per day and engage in three full training sessions before returning to play. Not taking NSAID’s in the post-acute period following a hamstring strain may be associated with a greater chance of successful return to competition.

Hamstring strains – The Influence of Rehabilitation on Recurrence Rate in Elite Australian Footballers.pdf

Rehabilitation Influences on Recurrence and Predictors of Outcome PowerPoint220708.pdf

4. A summary of the analysis of Prices hamstring injury data

Summary of the analysis of Prices hamstring injury data.pdf

5. Hamstring Strain Assessment

i) How do you assess a hamstring strain?

A survey for sports medicine practitioners with 53 hamstring assessment tests:

Hamstring Strain Assessment Survey.doc

ii) How the experts (AFL and SMA physiotherapists) assess hamstring strain.

Hamstring Strain Physiotherapy Assessment.pdf

Hamstring Strain Assessment Survey Results.pdf

iii) Proposal for assessing hamstring strains