Female collegiate soccer players post anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction utilize aberrant movement strategies to achieve similar performance to uninjured players.

Background: Female soccer athletes with a history of anterior cruciate ligament injury are more susceptible to secondary injuries and potentially worse sport performance. The purpose of this study was to determine if female soccer athletes post anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction demonstrate worse jump height and reactive strength index performance and lower involved limb hip, knee, and ankle joint power and absorption, and larger joint power and absorption asymmetries compared to matched uninjured athletes.

Methods: Eleven Division I female soccer athletes post anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (18.8 ± 1.0 years, 1.72 ± 0.04 m, 66.4 ± 3.4 kg) and twenty-two matched controls (19.2 ± 1.0 years, 1.72 ± 0.05 m, 65.8 ± 5.0 kg) completed three trials of a standard bilateral jump landing. Separate 2 × 2 (group, limb) mixed-model ANOVAs, independent t-tests, and Mann-Whitney U tests (α ≤ 0.05) were used for analysis. Post-hoc t-tests with false discovery rate P-values were used on significant interactions.

Findings: We found no differences between groups in jump height, reactive strength index, ankle power and absorption asymmetry, hip power and absorption asymmetry, and knee absorption asymmetry (P > 0.05). Athletes post anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction had decreased knee power in their involved limb compared to their uninvolved limb (P < 0.001). Regardless of limb, athletes post anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction absorbed more at the hip compared to controls (P = 0.013).

Interpretation: Female soccer athletes post anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction utilize aberrant strategies to achieve the same level of performance as their uninjured peers. Specifically, the athletes utilized a hip dominant strategy to achieve similar performance outcomes.