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Rheumatology (Oxford)2026;65(6)June 3, 2026Journal Article

Prevalence of foot/ankle osteoarthritis and pain in retired male professional footballers compared with general population male controls: a cross-sectional study.

Ahmed Ali Thanoon1,2,3, Shima Espahbodi1,2,3, Monirah Ali Shuaib1,2,3, Bonnie Millar1,3,4, Ashely Duncan5, Catherine J Bowen6, Terence W O'Neill7, Richard J Wakefield8, Fiona E Watt9, David A Walsh1,3,4,10, Gordon Fuller11, Mark E Batt2, Sanjay M Parekh12, Gwen Sascha Fernandes1,13, Michael Doherty1,2,3, Weiya Zhang1,2,3,4
1Academic Rheumatology, Injury Inflammation and Recovery Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
2Arthritis UK Centre for Sport, Exercise and Osteoarthritis, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
3Arthritis UK Pain Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
4NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, Nottingham University Hospitals, NHS Trust, Nottingham, UK.
5National Institute for Health Research ARC EM, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
6Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
7NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre, Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Manchester University Foundation NHS Trust, Manchester, UK.
8NIHR Leeds Biomedical Research Centre, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
9Department of Immunology and Inflammation, Imperial College London, London, UK.
10Advanced Pain Discovery Platform, Nottingham, UK.
11Centre for Urgent and Emergency Research, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
12Perspectum, Oxford, UK.
13South West Critical Thinking Unit, Population Health Directorate, NHS England, Bristol, UK.
PubMed DOI

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To examine whether retired male professional footballers have a higher risk of foot/ankle osteoarthritis (OA) and pain than general population male controls. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, questionnaires for self-reported foot/ankle OA outcomes were posted to 878 footballers and 1060 controls, and subsequently a sample of responders per group underwent assessment for radiogra…

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