The soccer is one of the most popular sport modality around the world, with millions of practitioners of different levels, and thus, the incidence of injuries are expressive [1][2][3] . Among these injuries, the ankle sprain is the one that stands out 2, 4-5 .e ankle sprains are very common in soccer due to the demand of changes in direction performed with high velocities, after jumps and during the sprints itself 2,4,6 . ese rapid changes in direction or landing on irregular surfaces produces a large supination torque, causing the ankle to perform an excessive movement, overloading the joint and its structures, mainly the anterior talo-bular and the calcaneo-bular ligaments 7 .Repeated episodes of ankle sprains may negatively a ect the proprioception, which correspond to the perception of position and movement (i.e., synesthesia) of the body and its segments [8][9] . ese information are provided by mechanoreceptors in the muscles, tendons, skin, joint capsules and ligaments [10][11][12] .ese mechanoreceptors are sensitized by mechanics energy imposed to the joint and it is transmitted to the central nervous system by a erents impulses 13 . As a consequence to sprains, the a erent bers of the
AbstractThe aim of the study was to compare the behavior of COP and passive ankle position sense in subjects with and without functional ankle instability. Took part in this study 20 subjects, divided into two groups: stable group (SG) and unstable group (UG). The COP evaluation was made with the single-leg balance test, with eyes opened and closed, on a force plate. The passive ankle position sense test was performed with subjects blindfolded. The ankle was positioned in a target angle (10° and 20°) and the dynamometer moved passively the ankle, then the subjects were instructed to push the stop button when they feel that the ankle was on the target angle, obtaining the absolute angular error (AAE). The following variables were obtained: total displacement (TD); antero-posterior (SDap) and medio-lateral standard deviation (SDml); total mean velocity (TMV); antero-posterior (MVap) and medio-lateral mean velocity (MVml). The comparison between the data with normal distribution was made with the Student's t test, while to the TD and SDml was used the Mann-Whitney test. The correlations were performed with the Pearson and Spearman tests. We adopted α < 0.05. We observed difference between AAE-10º (p < 0.05). Strong correlations were found between: AAE-10° and TMV (p < 0.01 r = -0.867); AAE-10° and MVap (p < 0.01 r = -0.854); AAE-10° and MVml (p < 0.01 r = -0.771), with eyes opened, and AAE-10° and TD (p < 0.05 r = -0.666); AAE-10º and SDap (p < 0.05 r = -0,685) and AAE-10° and MVml (p < 0.05 r= -0.766) with eyes closed. Ankle sprains harm the joint position sense without affecting the balance.
