SynthesisSports health
Clinical Outcomes After ACL Reconstruction in Soccer (Football, Futbol) Players: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Sports health. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The majority of elite and professional athletes return to the preinjury level of activity after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA · 2026Pooled it
- Return-to-Sport Outcomes and Psychological Readiness to Return to Sport After Revision Compared to the Primary Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Sports medicine - open · 2026Pooled it
- Remnant Preservation in Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Versus Non-Preservation Methods: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Orthopaedic surgery · 2025Pooled it
- Return to Play and Performance After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction in Soccer Players: A Systematic Review of Recent Evidence.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2024Pooled it
- Long-term changes in playing time, competitive level, and market value after ACL reconstruction in elite Spanish professional football players.Knee surgery & related research · 2026Article
- Return-to-play timing and secondary anterior cruciate ligament injury risk in elite soccer players: A transfermarkt-based longitudinal analysis.Journal of experimental orthopaedics · 2026Article
- Biomechanical asymmetry during side-cutting is associated with lower limb muscle strength after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2026Article
- Short-term - change on physical capacities of football players within few days before ACL-injury: a retrospective case-control study.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2026Article
- The Effect of Duration of Supervised Rehabilitation on Outcomes Following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: A Systematic Review.International journal of sports physical therapy · 2026Article
- Epidemiology of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries in the Top 5 European Football (Soccer) Leagues.Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine · 2026Article
- Review
- Beyond the Injury: A Case Report on Psychological Intervention During ACL Rehabilitation in a Professional Futsal Player.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Innovative Rehabilitation of an Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tear in a Football Player: Muscle Chain Approach-A Case Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Return to competition after ACL reconstruction: Factors influencing rates and timing in Swedish football players.Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA · 2025Article
- Young age and return to play increase the likelihood of subsequent ACL reconstruction in football players: Data from the Swedish National Knee Ligament Registry.Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA · 2025Article
- Can Unilateral Strength Training Optimize Change of Direction Mechanics and Mitigate Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury Risk in Female Soccer Players? A Preliminary Pre-Post Intervention Study.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Anterior Cruciate Ligament Return to Play: "A Framework for Decision Making".Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Sport-specific training and return to sport after ACL reconstruction in elite athletes: a narrative review.Annals of joint · 2025Review
- Male football players have better patient-reported outcomes after primary anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction compared with females.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2024Article
- Addition of anterolateral ligament reconstruction to primary anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction could benefit recovery of functional outcomes.Scientific reports · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
contextThe risk factors for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear for athletes participating in pivoting sports includes young age and female sex. A previous meta-analysis has reported a reinjury rate of 15% after ACL reconstruction (ACLR) for athletes across all sports. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first systematic review and meta-analysis of available literature reporting outcomes after ACLR in soccer players.
objectiveTo review and aggregate soccer-specific outcomes data after ACLR found in current literature to help guide a more tailored discussion regarding expectations and prognosis for soccer players seeking operative management of ACL injuries. DATA SOURCES: A comprehensive search of publications was performed using PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and SPORTDiscus databases. STUDY SELECTION: Inclusion criteria consisted of original studies, level of evidence 1 to 4, studies reporting clinical and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) after primary ACLR in soccer players at all follow-up length. STUDY
designThe primary outcomes of interest were graft failure/reoperation rates, ACL injury in contralateral knee, return to soccer time, and PROs. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level 4. DATA EXTRACTION: Search of literature yielded 32 studies for inclusion that involved 3112 soccer players after ACLR.
resultsThe overall graft failure/reoperation rate ranged between 3.0% and 24.8% (mean follow-up range, 2.3-10 years) and the combined ACL graft failure and contralateral ACL injury rate after initial ACLR was 1.0% to 16.7% (mean follow-up range, 3-10 years); a subgroup analysis for female and male players revealed a secondary ACL injury incidence rate of 27%, 95% CI (22%, 32%) and 10%, 95% CI (6%, 15%), respectively. Soccer players were able to return to play between 6.1 and 11.1 months and the majority of PROs showed favorable scores at medium-term follow-up.
conclusionSoccer players experience high ACL injury rates after primary ACLR and demonstrated similar reinjury rates as found in previous literature of athletes who participate in high-demand pivoting sports.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.