As per the findings of a study published in International Journal of Sports Medicine, the participants with chronic ankle instability (CAI) shows changes in kinematics as a result of a protective strategy to decrease frontal plane ankle loading in harmful situations. The authors also indicated that CAI people can restrict ankle inversion in injury-related movements.

Out of the musculoskeletal injuries among athletes, ankle sprains are the most frequently occurring lower extremity musculoskeletal injury that leads to chronic ankle instability (CAI). The altered dynamic posture control is the major problem mentioned by the players with CAI. Even after the substantial amount of investigation, the debts producing repetitive sprains among people with chronic ankle instability are still ill-defined. The reduced peroneal activation and changes in frontal plane kinematics have been suggested as possible underlying mechanisms. However, the deficits during control of injury-related movements exhibited by the people with ankle instability are still not well-known.

The present study aimed to examine ankle joint kinetics and kinematics along with neuromuscular activation throughout dynamic change-of-direction movements. Eighteen patients manifested with functional instability; eighteen with both mechanical and functional instability and 18 healthy controls went through 180° turning movements and 45° sidestep-cutting in response to light signals. The comparison of trials with patients having the highest maximum angle inversion indicated significantly lower inversion angles in both instability groups versus control during sidestep-cutting. Patients with functional instability manifested greater peroneal activation before foot strike and considerably lower average maximum inversion angles as compared to patients with functional/mechanical instability and controls, respectively.