INTRODUCTION: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are frequent in team sports, especially during side-cutting manoeuvres (1). Altered sensory integration contributes to increased injury risk (2) and several biomechanical determinants have been previously associated with the occurrence of ACL ruptures (3). Recent data has shown that proprioceptive postural control strategies differ between athletes (4), with decreased postural performance and aberrant hamstring recruitment in young individuals with a more ankle-steered proprioceptive strategy. Since postural control during complex tasks requires adequate sensory integration and somaesthetic reweighting (5), we aimed to investigate the relationship between proprioceptive strategies and biomechanics during side-cutting manoeuvres in the context of ACL injuries. METHODS: 47 handball players performed unanticipated (CUTunant) and unanticipated (CUTunant) cutting tasks. Their ability to reweight somaesthetic signals during postural perturbations on various surfaces was assessed using the centre of pressure displacements generated by the muscle vibration on a firm and foam surface. Two opposing behaviours were observed: a "rigid" strategy in which reliance on ankle proprioception increased on the foam, and a "plastic" strategy that involved a proximal shift of proprioceptive reliance (p<.001). Statistical Parametric Mapping analysis was used to compare pelvic and lower limb side-cutting kinematics, kinetics and electromyography activity from 7 muscles 200ms before and after initial contact (IC) using a two-way Analysis of Variance (strategy×condition). RESULTS: 20 athletes (11 females and 9 males, 18.5 years) were characterized as plastic and 20 (12 females and 8 males, 18.9 years) as rigid. No interaction between condition and proprioceptive profile was observed. More ipsilateral pelvis inclination prior IC and lower vastus lateralis (VL) activity immediately after IC was observed during CUTant. When comparing proprioceptive strategy, rigid individuals exhibited less pre-activity of the semitendinosus (p<0.001) and higher VL activity (p=0.032). Conversely, they showed higher gluteus medius pre-activity (p<0.05) and higher VL activity 100ms after IC (p<0.001). Ankle was also more internally rotated before and during the stance phase (p<0.05) among rigid athletes. CONCLUSION: Lower ST pre-activity, higher foot internal rotation and VL overactivation were previously associated with an increased risk of ACL injury (4). Decreased proprioceptive plasticity is linked with at-risk biomechanics for Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury during side-cutting manoeuvres.
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