Determining the role of Nordic hamstring exercises in preventing hamstring injuries in soccer players: A narrative review

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The most prevalent injury sustained by soccer players involves a hamstring strain or injury. These injuries have been observed in both contact and non-contact sports such as soccer, football, baseball, and cricket, but they can also be found in the general population due to overstretching or sudden muscle pull during daily activities, in soccer alone, the literature reports 15–50% of hamstring injuries, making it the sport with the highest rate of hamstring injuries. Long-term treatment and rehabilitation periods, combined with a high financial burden on players, cause them to miss games and, in some cases, retire from sports at the earliest. Despite of wide-ranging treatments, rehabilitation, and the preventive procedures the risk of recurrence of hamstring injuries remains significantly high. Nordic hamstring exercises (NHE) or Nordic curls are aimed at improving eccentric strength in the hamstring muscles, which is known to be a significant modifiable risk factor in hamstring injury prevention. Numerous studies have examined the effectiveness of Nordic hamstring exercises/curls as a preventative measure to lower the incidence of hamstring injuries in athletes participating in other sports and soccer players. The Nordic Hamstring Exercises (NHE) were incorporated into the FIFA '11' injury prevention program in 2003 and enhanced to develop the FIFA '11+' in 2006 with the aim of reducing hamstring injuries in soccer players. As a matter of fact, the desire to write a paper on this topic is to emphasize the role of Nordic hamstring exercises (NHE) as a preventive measure to lower the incidence of hamstring strains in soccer players and other athletes.

May warrant enhanced surveillance for hamstring injuries in soccer; leaves open optimal long-term management strategies.