Effects of eccentric exercises on improving ankle dorsiflexion in soccer players.

Limited ankle dorsiflexion is common in soccer players and is often thought to raise injury risk, so clinicians sometimes prescribe eccentric calf stretching to address it. This trial compared adolescent male players from two professional clubs: one group added eccentric calf exercises and stretching three times weekly to regular training, while the other continued regular training alone, with ankle dorsiflexion measured before and after 12 weeks using a weight-bearing lunge test. The group doing regular training alone improved significantly, while the eccentric exercise group did not show a significant change, and the difference between groups was statistically significant in favor of the control group. This runs counter to the common assumption that eccentric calf work improves ankle mobility.

The main limitation is that this was a single 12-week trial in young, healthy players from two clubs, so how these findings apply to other populations, ages, or longer timeframes is not established.

If you play soccer and have been told your ankle doesn't bend forward as much as it should, you may have heard that specific calf stretching exercises can help fix that. This study tested that idea in teenage and young adult male soccer players with reduced ankle flexibility, comparing those who added eccentric calf exercises to their training against those who just continued their normal training, over 12 weeks. Surprisingly, the group that only did regular training improved more in ankle flexibility than the group doing the extra calf exercises, and this difference was statistically significant.

The eccentric exercise group did not show a significant improvement at all. This doesn't mean regular training definitely caused the improvement, since many things can change ankle flexibility over a season.

The study was relatively small, involved only male adolescent and young adult players from two clubs over a single 12-week period, so it's unclear whether these results would hold for other groups, older athletes, or longer time frames.

This is a summary of research, not medical advice. Talk to your own healthcare provider about anything affecting your care.

This randomised controlled trial addresses a specific clinical question: does adding targeted eccentric calf muscle exercises to regular training improve ankle dorsiflexion in soccer players who present with restricted dorsiflexion on the weight-bearing lunge test. Male players aged 14 to 21 from two professional clubs were allocated by club, one serving as intervention and one as control, with 47 of 107 screened players meeting the dorsiflexion threshold (≤10 cm) and included in the analysis. The result runs counter to common assumptions underlying eccentric calf protocols.

The intervention group's dorsiflexion did not change significantly (7.1 to 7.4 cm, p=0.381), while the control group doing only regular training improved significantly (6.1 to 8.2 cm, p<0.001), and the between-group difference was statistically significant (p=0.005) favoring the control group. This informs clinical reasoning by questioning whether eccentric calf stretching reliably increases dorsiflexion in this population, rather than confirming any benefit. The trial does not establish why regular training alone produced greater improvement, nor does it address injury outcomes, adherence to the home exercise component, or generalisability beyond young male players over a single 12-week in-season period.

Allocation was by club rather than individual randomisation, which may introduce confounding, and the trial was registered retrospectively.