Abstract

BACKGROUND: Lower extremity injuries represent a significant burden in elite collision sports. Although clinical assessment frequently evaluates foot morphology to identify injury risk, the predictive validity of static foot metrics remains contested.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship between static foot structure measurements and lower extremity injury in elite rugby union league players. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 423 elite male rugby union league players. Structural profiling comprised foot length, truncated foot length, seated dorsum height, standing dorsum height and navicular drop. Injury occurrence was recorded retrospectively across a competitive season. Separate single-predictor binary logistic regression models determined the odds ratios (OR) and explanatory capacity (Nagelkerke R²) of each variable.

RESULTS: No static foot structure measure had a statistically significant relationship with lower extremity injury (p > .05). Foot length (OR = 1.003, 95% CI [0.994, 1.013], p = .499) and truncated foot length (OR = 1.004, 95% CI [0.986, 1.023], p = .648) showed negligible association with injury variance. Navicular drop exhibited the strongest single structural effect and approached significance (OR = 1.097, 95% CI [0.986, 1.221], p = .088, Nagelkerke R² = .010) but did not reach the threshold for clinical predictability.

CONCLUSION: Stand-alone static foot measurements demonstrate limited clinical utility for predicting lower extremity injury in elite rugby populations. Static profiling remains valuable for characterising morphology and informing footwear or orthotic selection, but screening should move from isolated structural models toward multidimensional risk assessment integrating morphology with functional performance, intrinsic foot strength and sport-specific exposure.

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