AN INTERVAL KICKING PROGRESSION FOR RETURN TO SOCCER FOLLOWING LOWER EXTREMITY INJURY

Background and Purpose The majority of all soccer injuries affect the lower extremities. Regardless of whether the injured limb is an athlete’s preferred kicking or stance leg, a lower extremity injury may affect their ability to impact the ball. Sport‐specific biomechanical progressions to augment loading and gradually reintroduce a player to the demands of sport have been developed for upper extremity sports such as baseball, softball, tennis, and golf. Generalized return to soccer progressions have also been published in order to assist clinicians in safely returning athletes to sport; however, there are no specific progressions for the early stages of kicking designed to introduce stance leg loading and kicking leg impact. Thus, the purpose of this clinical commentary was to review the existing literature elucidating the biomechanics of kicking a soccer ball and propose a progressive kicking program to support clinicians in safely returning their soccer athletes to the demands of sport.