Return to competitive play after hamstring injuries involving disruption of the central tendon.

Background: The hamstring muscles are the most commonly injured muscle group in many different sports. Recovery time is often unpredictable and prolonged, and recurrent injury is common.

Hypothesis: Hamstring injuries that disrupt the central tendon enclosed within the muscle belly require a longer recovery time than do injuries involving only muscle, epimysial fascia, or the musculotendinous junction.

The match day use of ultrasound during professional football finals matches.

Objectives: To describe the use of ultrasound by a professional Australian rules football team in the immediate pregame period to guide local anaesthetic injections, during game time to assess injuries and to guide local anaesthetic injections, and postmatch to assess injuries and to guide therapeutic injections.

Methods: The use of match day ultrasound was documented during four finals matches. Local anaesthetic injections were considered effective if players played without pain and experienced no complication from the injection.