Initial contact was made with each player prior to them undergoing reconstructive surgery and within 2 weeks of the ACL injury being diagnosed. Following institutional ethics approval guidelines, each player completed informed consent at this initial contact time. The methodological procedure was split into three distinct phases of the injury and subsequent rehabilitation, expanding on research conducted by Shelley [
15], to cover (i) Early Limited Participation – detailing the early part of the rehabilitation program, where the emphasis is on regaining the full range of movement in the knee joint and muscle strength; (ii) Late Limited Participation – detailing the final part of the rehabilitation program, where emphasis is on more sport specific training and the final preparation for full fitness; (iii) Return to Play – detailing the first three games of competition after full rehabilitation.
A mixed methodological approach was undertaken concurrent with each player’s rehabilitation, comprising of semi-structured interviews, a self-report diary and completing three established questionnaires related to SDT and social support. This approach consisted of a dominant (qualitative) – less dominant (quantitative) design as suggested by Tashakkori and Teddle [
16]. The semi-structured interview guides, as utilized by Podlog and Eklund [
17] focused on the player’s cognitions, emotions and coping strategies experienced during the rehabilitation, as well as the perceived control and support provided to them, and were based on previous literature (e.g., [
18,
19]). Twice monthly interviews, utilizing the semi-structured guides and lasting on average 30–45 min in duration, were conducted with each player, at his club training facility, concurrent with his rehabilitation (totalling 8–16 interviews, dependent on the length of the rehabilitation process. See Table
2 for individual player specifics). In addition, each player was asked to complete a pre-designed, self-report diary to allow them to record day-to-day changes related to their emotions and coping strategies. Specifically, each player was instructed to record both positive and negative emotional changes, and indicate the strategies utilized to cope during the rehabilitation related to both the injury and life in general. Diaries allow for a more extensive investigation [
20] as they can reduce the time between the event and recall. The use of personal documents, such as diaries, also enables the participant to provide detailed information relating to them personally that they may be unwilling to discuss in other forums [
21]. Furthermore, three established questionnaires were completed following successful return to competition to ascertain the social support and perceived autonomy-support provided during rehabilitation. These were the MOS Social Support Survey (MOS-SSS [
22]), which enabled the identification of various forms of social support (Emotional/Informational support; Tangible support; Affectionate support; Positive Social Interaction) offered during the rehabilitation, and two questionnaires adapted from the Sport Climate Questionnaire (part of a group of questionnaires used to identify Perceived Autonomy-Supportive Climates [
23]). These questionnaires are designed to assess to what degree the climate established is autonomous or controlling. The final two questionnaires investigated the climate established by the coach (Sport Climate Questionnaire) and by the physiotherapist (Injury Rehabilitation Questionnaire; which replaced the word ‘coach’ with ‘physiotherapist’) during the rehabilitation process. Although there a number of other scales which assess social support, the present study included the MOS-SSS because of its good psychometric properties (Internal consistency was high for tangible support (α = .91), emotion/information support (α = .96), affection support (α = .94), positive social interaction (α = .94), and total support (α = .93) [
22]), the multidimensional assessment of social support, it has been used previously in injury rehabilitation, and because it is relatively quick to complete. Perceived Autonomy-Supportive Climates questionnaires have been successfully utilized in a wide range of settings and the alpha coefficient of internal validity has been above .90 for this instrument [
23].
Table 2
Number of interviews per player in each phase