Julie P. Burland, University of Connecticut - Predicting In-Season Injuries Among Women's Basketball Players

On University of Connecticut Sports Science Week: Predicting injuries could be key to team success. Julie P. Burland, director of research at the Institute for Sports Medicine, examines this possibility.Julie Burland’s research background is in the evaluation and recovery of neuromuscular function and psychosocial factors influencing postoperative and return to sport outcomes after ACL reconstruction. Specifically her work has proposed the presence of learned helplessness, a psychobehavioral phenomenon, and its direct link to neurological alterations after ACLR. This work also explores how learned helplessness may influence other clinically relevant outcomes such as lower extremity biomechanics, quadriceps health and perceived function. Developing this knowledge base will help to inform future rehabilitation practices and return to physical activity progressions after ACL reconstruction. Her long-term career objective is to continue to produce research that will help advance clinical rehabilitation science and effectively translate this knowledge to clinicians in order to promote lower extremity joint health, psychosocial well-being and long-term quality of life across active populations.I have long been concerned about the continued high rate of lower-extremity injuries—especially ACL tears and ankle sprains—among female basketball players. These injuries not only sideline athletes but also heighten their risk of developing early-onset osteoarthritis. Traditional training and injury prevention strategies may help, but they don’t reveal which athletes are most vulnerable injury due to high repetitive impact load during a long season. Meanwhile, in military and tactical populations, elevated markers of cartilage metabolism have been linked to subsequent ACL injuries—suggesting a biomolecular signal might flag risk before a tear occurs. So my question became: could we translate these military findings to our traditional athlete and combine wearable sensors and blood biomarkers to pinpoint athletes at elevated risk?Over the course of a collegiate women’s basketball season, I tracked eleven athletes from preseason to postseason. We outfitted them with inertial measurement units on both lower legs to capture cumulative impact loading, bone stimulus, and step intensity during practice sessions. At six distinct times throughout the season, we drew blood and analyzed cartilage synthesis markers (CPII and CS846) and degradation markers (C2C). Injury incidence was recorded daily in collaboration with the team’s athletic trainer. We then evaluated correlations among impact loading, biomarker trajectories, and injury outcomes.Our results showed that preseason and early-season moderate-to-high impacts (6–200 g) were significantly associated with later lower-extremity injuries. Increases in CS846 and CPII were linked with cumulative bone stimulus and predicted overall injury incidence. Notably, elevated CS846 values measured before and early in the season were particularly indicative of higher injury risk.Together, these findings suggest that mechanical loading and cartilage biology converge to shape injury vulnerability. Monitoring both impact and biomarkers may usher in a new, more proactive era in sports medicine—one where at-risk individuals can be identified before an injury ever happens.Read More:[UConn Today] - Biomarkers Predict In-Season Injuries for Women’s Basketball Players[ScienceDirect] - Cumulative Impact Loading and Cartilage Synthesis Biomarkers May Be Associated With Injury Risk in Female Collegiate Basketball Players This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.academicminute.org