Alex Kountouris

Monash University (Australia) · Department of Physiotherapy

Objectives To describe traumatic head and neck injuries in elite Australian cricket players, for the purposes of understanding risk and the role of protective equipment and regulations.DesignRetrospective cohort study.Methods This study reviewed twelve seasons of clinical data for elite male and female cricket players who sustained a traumatic head...

Background Recent guidelines (including a special series in The Lancet) have emphasised a minimal role for imaging when assessing low back pain in adults, as the majority of patients will have non-specific findings on imaging that do not correlate well with pain. Objective To assess whether the diagnosis of lumbar bone stress injuries in young ath...

Objective: To describe the presentation and management of lumbar bone stress injuries (LBSI), recurrent LBSI, and lumbar nonunited defects in elite Australian male and female cricket players. Design: Retrospective case series. Setting: Professional domestic and international cricket teams over 13 seasons. Participants: Elite Australian crick...

Objectives This study presents seven seasons of injury surveillance data for both elite Australian male and female cricket players, revealing injury statistics and allowing for comparison between sexes. Design Retrospective cohort. Methods Participants were elite Australian male and female cricket players who were contracted to play for a nationa...

Objectives: Effectively supporting the mental health of elite athletes and coaches requires validated tools that assess not only individual-level factors but organisational-level influences. The aim of this study was to develop a bespoke scale assessing perceived psychological safety within high-performance environments. Methods: 337 elite athle...

Guilt and shame are self-conscious emotions with implications for mental health, social and occupational functioning, and the effectiveness of sports practice. To date, the assessment and role of athlete-specific guilt and shame has been under-researched. Reporting data from 174 junior elite cricketers (M = 17.34 years; females n = 85), the present...

Objective The diagnosis of sport-related concussion is a challenge for practitioners given the variable presentation and lack of a universal clinical indicator. The aim of this study was to describe the CogSport findings associated with concussion in elite Australian cricket players, and to evaluate the diagnostic ability of CogSport for this cohor...

Objectives To retrospectively review data of concussed and non-concussed elite cricket athletes following head impact to describe which clinical features on the day of injury are associated with concussion diagnosis. A secondary aim was to describe the recovery time of concussed athletes. Design Retrospective cohort study. Methods This study revi...

Objective: Describe the proportion of upper lumbar bone stress injuries (LBSI; T12-L3) relative to all LBSI, and the clinical presentation and diagnosis of upper LBSI in elite cricketers. Design: Case series. Setting: Professional domestic and international cricket teams over a 9-year period. Participants: Elite Australian cricketers. Indep...

Objectives Determine intra-individual changes in CogSport performance in elite cricket players diagnosed with concussion, and differentiate this from changes which may be attributed to post-match with no head impact. Design Retrospective observational study of elite Australian male and female cricket players with diagnosed concussion and prospecti...

Objectives: 1) Quantify the intensity of bone marrow oedema (BMO) present in the lumbar vertebrae of asymptomatic elite adult fast bowlers; 2) relate the intensity of BMO to bowling workload and lumbar bone stress injury (LBSI), and; 3) evaluate the utility of MRI screening to reduce the risk of LBSI. Methods: Thirty-eight elite Australian fast...

Objectives Review magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of elite adult fast bowlers with a history of lumbar spine stress fracture for evidence of bone healing. The findings will determine whether bone healing can occur in this population, and whether MRI may be used as a tool to assess bone healing and inform clinical decision making. Design Retrospec...

Video analysis of situational factors associated with head impacts and concussion has been completed in several sports, however has yet to be completed in cricket. This study aimed to identify situational factors associated with concussion in elite Australian male and female cricket. Match video of head impacts were coded for player position, impac...

Introduction Hand fractures are one of the most common injuries sustained whilst playing cricket. Further research is required to inform future clinical management and risk-reduction strategies. Methods This retrospective cohort study reviewed all cases of hand fractures in elite Australian cricket players over a three-year period. Data included s...

In terms of safeguarding the health and well-being of athletes in Sri Lanka, a primary focus has always been toward the treatment of injuries after they have occurred and promoting rehabilitation back into sport. There has been little attention towards the primary prevention of injuries in Sri Lankan sports. As a developing sporting nation, the ben...

Objectives: To report the compliance and results of an electrocardiogram (ECG) cardiac screening program in male and female elite Australian cricketers. Design: cross-sectional study. Methods: Elite cricketers were offered screening in accordance with Cricket Australia policy. Players who consented provided a personal and family history, physi...

Experiential knowledge was collated to improve understanding of the mechanism of vertebral artery dissection (VAD) and inform recommendations for risk-reduction strategies in sport. Fourteen experts from fields of neurology, forensic pathology, biomedical engineering, radiology, physiotherapy, and sport and exercise medicine participated in semi-st...

This study aimed to observe core temperature responses in elite cricket players under match conditions during the summer in Australia. Thirty-eight Australian male cricketers ingested capsule temperature sensors during six four-day first-class matches between February 2016 and March 2017. Core temperature (Tc) was recorded during breaks in play. Ba...

Background:: Concussion in sport is a topic of growing interest in Australia and worldwide. To date, relatively few studies have examined the true incidence of concussion in cricket. Hypothesis:: Concussion in cricket is more common than current literature suggests. Study design:: Descriptive epidemiology study. Level of evidence:: Level 4....

Objectives Lumbar bone stress injury (‘bone stress injury’) is common in junior fast bowlers. The repetitive loading of cricket fast bowling may cause bone marrow oedema (BMO), detectable on MRI, before the bowler suffers from symptomatic bone stress injury. We investigated the temporal relationship between BMO, bone stress injury, along with bowli...

Study design: Comparative reliability and prospective validity. Objective: First, to evaluate the reliability of four methods of assessing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) bone marrow oedema (BMO) of the posterior vertebral arch of the lumbar vertebrae of elite junior fast bowlers. Second, to evaluate the validity of the most reliable method for...

Purpose of review Spondylolysis is a broad term, with advances in imaging enabling more accurate diagnosis of the activity and severity of a lesion. This review discusses the role of different imaging modalities in the diagnosis and management of lumbar spondylolysis in athletes. Recent Findings Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has diagnostic and...

Fast bowlers have the highest injury rates in cricket; therefore, reducing these injuries is a priority for coaches and the support staff. Improving physical conditioning and monitoring bowling workload are primary preventative strategies to reduce overuse injuries. The objective of this study was to investigate practices of cricket coaches in Aust...

Objective To document the incidence of head impacts at the elite level in the sport of cricket, where there currently is very little epidemiological data regarding concussion. Design Prospective registry of head impacts reported by medical and physiotherapy staff and/or discovered by Chief Medical Officer from clinical record-keeping systems and m...

Background: Injuries to the hamstring are relatively common in professional cricketers (as they are in many team sports) and have increased in incidence in the "T20 era" (introduction of 20-over matches) of cricket since 2006. Methods: This study analyzed incidence of hamstring injury in the various elite male match types over a 20-year period (199...

Background: Injuries to the hamstring are relatively common in professional cricketers (as they are in many team sports) and have increased in incidence in the “T20 era” (introduction of 20-over matches) of cricket since 2006. Methods: This study analyzed incidence of hamstring injury in the various elite male match types over a 20-year period (199...

Background T20 (Twenty20 or 20 over) cricket has emerged in the last decade as the most popular form of cricket (in terms of spectator attendances). International consensus cricket definitions, first published in 2005, were updated in 2016 to better reflect the rise to prominence of T20 cricket. Methods Injury incidence and prevalence rates were c...

Objectives: To provide an overview of the published literature on epidemiology, pathomechanics and risk factors for side strain injury in sport, complemented by clinical perspectives of diagnosis and management strategies that are not covered in the literature. Design: Narrative review METHODS: A review of the literature was completed with all s...

Background Injuries to the abdominal wall, particularly muscular injuries, are relatively common in professional cricketers. The Cricket Australia injury database holds data on these injuries over a 20 years span. Methods This study is a combination of (1) a descriptive outline of the parameters associated with side strains and abdominal wall inju...

BACKGROUND. Cricket fast bowlers have a high incidence of injury and have been the subject of previous research investigating the effects of previous injury, workload and technique. Bone stress injuries are of particular concern as they lead to prolonged absences from the game, with younger bowlers appearing to be at particular risk. OBJECTIVES. To...

Objective: The objective of the study was to determine the magnitude and side of quadratus lumborum (QL) asymmetries in elite, adult, cricket fast bowlers and the relationship with lumbar spine injury. Design: Cohort study. Setting: Cricket fast bowers had magnetic resonance (MR) scans at the start of a cricket season and their injury characte...

Previous studies have demonstrated quadratus lumborum asymmetry in cricket fast bowlers, but there has been conflicting evidence regarding the relationship to lumbar spine injury, particularly vertebral bone stress injuries. This study investigated the relationship between quadratus lumborum asymmetry and lumbar spine injury in adolescent cricket f...

Bowling-side quadratus lumborum (QL) asymmetries have been previously reported on the dominant side in junior cricket fast bowlers using MRI. The aim of this study was to investigate QL asymmetry when measuring with two different methods; first using a small number of images with clear muscle borders and second using a larger number of images with...

#### Summary points Tennis elbow is a tendinopathy of the common extensor origin (fig 1⇓) of the lateral elbow. Although the pathology is in the elbow region, patients present with gradual onset of pain on extension movements of the wrist and fingers and supination of the forearm. The condition was formerly known as “lateral epicondylitis.” Becaus...

To assess whether a history of lumbar stress fracture in pace bowlers in cricket is a risk factor for lower limb muscle strains. This was a prospective cohort risk factor study, conducted using injury data from contracted first class pace bowlers in Australia during seasons 1998-1999 to 2008-2009 inclusive. There were 205 pace bowlers, 33 of whom s...

This study analyzes injuries occurring prospectively in Australian men's cricket at the state and national levels over 11 seasons (concluding in season 2008-09). In the last four of these seasons, there was more cricket played, with most of the growth being a new form of the game - Twenty20 cricket. Since the introduction of a regular Twenty20 prog...

Limited research in cricket bowlers and baseball pitchers has shown a correlation between workload and injury risk. Acute high bowling workload in cricket leads to increased risk of bowling injury in future matches. Cohort study (prognosis); Level of evidence, 2. One hundred twenty-nine pace (fast) bowlers who bowled in 2715 player matches over a p...

Achilles and patellar tendinopathies affect a broad range of the population and are difficult conditions to manage clinically. The pathology is persistent in the chronic tendon and can be considered to be failed healing. The exact cause of tendinopathy pain is unclear but may be related to changes in neurovascular structures. Rehabilitation for Ac...