Badenhorst and colleagues lead out the feature articles this month with a study investigating the mental health concerns of South African Para athletes. In the second of the featured articles, van der Hoef’s group report the utility of the Hamstring Outcome Score in predicting future hamstring injury. In the final feature article, Clarke, Whitaker and Sullivan examine the position specific peak movement demands of Australian Football League Women players across the initial three years of the competition.

This month we have a focus on an extended section on sports medicine and sports injury. The first article, from Santo, Reed and Lynall outlines the factors affecting the tandem gait test in healthy active adults with implications for concussion assessment. Jacobsson and team describe levels of subjective health literacy in youth athletes and their mentors in Swedish Athletics. Naylor and colleagues assess and compare brachial and femoral artery function and structure in elite level athletes engaged in endurance, strength and power sports.

Khalaj, Vincenzino and Smith report a study comparing hip and knee isometric muscle torque between individuals with chronic ankle instability, those who have sustained one ankle sprain with no ongoing problems and healthy controls. Edouard’s group outline the rates of lower limb muscle injuries in athletics disciplines requiring different running velocities during international athletics championships. Han and team describe a more sensitive ankle proprioceptive testing method, with higher ecological validity, for assessing proprioceptive deficits in individuals with chronic ankle instability. Gill and colleagues compare injury-profiles of females and males presenting to Hospital Emergency Departments with an Australian Football League injury. Fraser’s team provide an assessment of the risk of lateral ankle sprain in male and female tactical athletes across different military occupations in the US military.

Kröpfl and colleagues lead out the sport and exercise science section for the month with an article highlighting the importance of the antioxidative system in preventing the endothelium from acute exercise-induced vascular injury. Fraser’s group explore muscular strength trajectories from childhood to mid-adulthood. Norris and team describe the influence of test modality, season stage, match load and physical qualities on the interpretation of neuromuscular function post Australian Football League matches. In the final article this month, Patterson and co-workers describe the impact of acute or repeated applications of ischemic preconditioning on the recovery process, following exercise induced muscle damage.

The July 2021 issue encompasses a wide range of areas of interest to clinicians and researchers in the sport sciences and exercise medicine.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2021.05.003

© 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Sports Medicine Australia.