Dr Amanda Johnson PhD, M.C.S.P., Grad Dip Phys, FHEA
Senior Lecturer
Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy
My profile
Biography
I have experienced a variety of physiotherapy posts, at junior and senior levels in hospital, in Manchester and London but my focus has always been sport. I have been involved with sports teams at all levels, initially with swimming and athletics worked with the England athletics team travelling to international camps and competitions. I then moved over to Great Britain Aquatic teams including swimming, synchro swimming and then 10 years with the GB diving team.
Latterly I have been focused more on football, Initially at Bury football club, as the first team physio and then later moved to Altrincham, a semi pro club. I served for 5 years as the England Women’s Football team physio and as a senior lecturer for the Football Association.
My interest then focussed on youth players, and I spent 10 years as senior physiotherapist for the Academy of Manchester United where I completed my PhD on growth, maturation, and injury before becoming the lead physiotherapist at Aspire Academy for 8 years. Following this I spent 12 months in India setting up a Football Academy in the Punjab.
I am now a Senior Lecturer in the Physiotherapy department in the Faculty of Health and Education and the Manchester Institute of Sport at Manchester Metropolitan University. My research interests are related to youth athletes and the influence of growth and maturation and injury in all sports. I have lectured at many international conferences on youth development and have had several peer reviewed articles published.
Interests and expertise
My expertise is in growth and maturation and the prevention of injury in adolescent athletes.
Projects
I Have had a number of peer reviewed articles published in my specialist area.
I am involved with research groups at Aspire Institute Qatar. looking at growth, maturity and injury prevention in adolescent athletes.
I am also involved with the YAHIR initiative, a collaboration with Oxford University and Aspetar Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Hospital Qatar researching the development of hip deformity in youth athletes.
Teaching
I am involved in teaching Musculoskeletal physiotherapy to both post graduates and undergraduates and lead the unit Rehabilitation in Sport on the MSc in Sport and Exercise Medicine
Supervision
I was on the supervision teams for 3 PhD candidates (all successfully completed) whilst working in Qatar.
Research outputs
A number of peer reviewed articles have been published
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Chapters in books
Johnson, A. (2020) 'The Adolescent Dancer: Special Considerations.' Complete Irish Dancer: Optimization of Health and Performance in Irish Dancers.
Materne, O., Farooq, A., Johnson, A., Greig, M., McNaughton, L. (2015) 'Relationship between injuries and somatic maturation in highly trained youth soccer players.' International Research in Science and Soccer II. pp. 182-192.
Johnson, A., Hussey, J. (2011) 'Musculoskeletal Disorders in the developing Child.' Exercise Therapy in the Management of Musculoskeletal Disorders. Wiley-Blackwell,
Johnson, A. (2011) 'The Knee.' Exercise Therapy in the Management of Musculoskeletal Disorders. Wiley-Blackwell,
Johnson, A. (2011) 'The Wrist and Hand.' Exercise Therapy in the Management of Musculoskeletal Disorders. Wiley-Blackwell,
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Journal articles
Lolli, L., Johnson, A., Monaco, M., Di Salvo, V., Gregson, W. (2023) 'Skeletal maturation in male elite youth athletes from the Middle East.' American Journal of Human Biology, 35(8) pp. e23906-e23906.
Lolli, L., Di Salvo, V., Monaco, M., Johnson, A., Gregson, W. (2023) 'A comparison of FELS and Tanner-Whitehouse II skeletal ages in male youth soccer players from the Middle East.' American Journal of Human Biology, pp. e23941-e23941.
Jeanguyot, E., Salcinovic, B., Johnson, A., van Dyk, N., Whiteley, R. (2023) 'Eccentric hamstring strength in young athletes is best documented when normalised to body mass: a cross-sectional study with normative data of 590 athletes from different age categories.' Biology of Sport, 40(4) pp. 1079-1095.
McClean, G., Wilson, M.G., Riding, N.R., Pieles, G., Watt, V., Adamuz, C., Shaw, A., Harkness, A., Johnson, A., George, K.P., Oxborough, D. (2023) 'A new tool to aid the differential diagnosis of physiological remodelling from cardiac pathology when assessing left ventricle, left atrial and aortic structure and function in male Arab and Black paediatric athletes.' Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease, 10(2) pp. 37-37.
Lolli, L., Johnson, A., Monaco, M., Di Salvo, V., Atkinson, G., Gregson, W. (2022) 'The percentage of mature height as a morphometric index of somatic growth: a formal scrutiny of conventional simple ratio scaling assumptions.' Pediatric Exercise Science, 35(2) pp. 107-115.
Lolli, L., Johnson, A., Monaco, M., Di Salvo, V., Gregson, W. (2022) 'Relative Skeletal Maturity and Performance Test Outcomes in Elite Youth Middle Eastern Soccer Players.' Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 54(8) pp. 1326-1334.
Lolli, L., Johnson, A., Monaco, M., Cardinale, M., Di Salvo, V., Gregson, W. (2021) 'Tanner–Whitehouse and modified Bayley–Pinneau adult height predictions in elite youth soccer players from the Middle East.' Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 53(12) pp. 2683-2690.
Martínez-Silván, D., Wik, E.H., Alonso, J.M., Jeanguyot, E., Salcinovic, B., Johnson, A., Cardinale, M. (2020) 'Injury characteristics in male youth athletics: a five-season prospective study in a full-time sports academy.' British Journal of Sports Medicine, 55(17) pp. 954-960.
Martínez-Silván, D., Johnson, A. (2020) 'Lower limb flexibility characteristics in youth athletics. Differences among events and age groups in highly trained adolescent athletes.' Apunts Sports Medicine, 55(207) pp. 89-95.
Wik, E.H., Martínez-Silván, D., Farooq, A., Cardinale, M., Johnson, A., Bahr, R. (2020) 'Skeletal maturation and growth rates are related to bone and growth plate injuries in adolescent athletics.' Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 30(5) pp. 894-903.
Wik, E.H., Materne, O., Chamari, K., Duque, J.D.P., Horobeanu, C., Salcinovic, B., Bahr, R., Johnson, A. (2019) 'Involving research-invested clinicians in data collection affects injury incidence in youth football.' Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 29(7) pp. 1031-1039.
McClean, G., Riding, N.R., Pieles, G., Sharma, S., Watt, V., Adamuz, C., Johnson, A., Tramullas, A., George, K.P., Oxborough, D., Wilson, M.G. (2019) 'Prevalence and significance of T-wave inversion in Arab and Black paediatric athletes: should anterior T-wave inversion interpretation be governed by biological or chronological age?.' European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, 26(6) pp. 641-652.
Horobeanu, C., Johnson, A., Pullinger, S.A. (2019) 'The prevalence of musculoskeletal injuries in junior elite squash players.' Asian journal of Sports Medicine, 10(1) pp. e84495-e84495.
Rejeb, A., Johnson, A., Farooq, A., Verrelst, R., Pullinger, S., Vaeyens, R., Witvrouw, E. (2019) 'Sports injuries aligned to predicted mature height in highly trained Middle-Eastern youth athletes: a cohort study.' BMJ Open, 9(3) pp. e023284-e023284.
Rejeb, A., Fourchet, F., Materne, O., Johnson, A., Horobeanu, C., Farooq, A., Witvrouw, E., Whiteley, R. (2019) 'Beighton scoring of joint laxity and injury incidence in Middle Eastern male youth athletes: a cohort study.' BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, 5(1) pp. e000482-e000482.
Martínez Silván, D., Johnson, A., Tramullas, A. (2018) 'Skeletal maturity as injury risk factor in adolescent elite track and field athletes.' Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, 6(6_suppl3) pp. 2325967118S0003-2325967118S0003.
Whiteley, R., Farooq, A., Johnson, A. (2017) 'Development of a data-based interval kicking program for preparation and rehabilitation purposes in professional football.' Science and Medicine in Football, 1(2) pp. 107-116.
Johnson, A., Farooq, A., Whiteley, R. (2017) 'Skeletal maturation status is more strongly associated with academy selection than birth quarter.' Science and Medicine in Football, 1(2) pp. 157-163.
Rejeb, A., Johnson, A., Vaeyens, R., Horobeanu, C., Farooq, A., Witvrouw, E. (2017) 'Compelling overuse injury incidence in youth multisport athletes.' European Journal of Sport Science, 17(4) pp. 495-502.
Sailly, M., Whiteley, R., Read, J., Johnson, A., Hölmich, P. (2016) 'Author response.' British Journal of Sports Medicine, 50(22) pp. 1421-1422.
Sailly, M., Whiteley, R., Read, J.W., Giuffre, B., Johnson, A., Hölmich, P. (2015) 'Pubic apophysitis: a previously undescribed clinical entity of groin pain in athletes.' British Journal of Sports Medicine, 49(12) pp. 828-834.
Sailly, M., Whiteley, R., Johnson, A. (2013) 'Doppler ultrasound and tibial tuberosity maturation status predicts pain in adolescent male athletes with Osgood-Schlatter's disease: A case series with comparison group and clinical interpretation.' British Journal of Sports Medicine, 47(2) pp. 93-97.
Whiteley, R., Jacobsen, P., Prior, S., Skazalski, C., Otten, R., Johnson, A. (2012) 'Correlation of isokinetic and novel hand-held dynamometry measures of knee flexion and extension strength testing.' Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 15(5) pp. 444-450.
Engebretsen, L., Steffen, K., Bahr, R., Broderick, C., Dvorak, J., Janarv, P.M., Johnson, A., Leglise, M., Mamisch, T.C., Mckay, D., Micheli, L., Schamasch, P., Singh, G.D., Stafford, D.E.J., Steen, H. (2010) 'The International Olympic Committee consensus statement on age determination in high-level young athletes.' British Journal of Sports Medicine, 44(7) pp. 476-484.
Johnson, A., Doherty, P.J., Freemont, A. (2009) 'Investigation of growth, development, and factors associated with injury in elite schoolboy footballers: prospective study.' BMJ: British Medical Journal, 338(7696) pp. b490-b490.
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Conference papers
Whiteley, R., Johnson, A., Farooq, A. (2017) 'Description of kicking loads in professional football – an analysis of the MLS used to inform a data-based kicking programme.' In Sports Medicine Australia Conference 2016. 20. Melbourne, Australia, 12/10/2016 - 15/10/2016. Elsevier, pp. e93-e93.
Whiteley, R., Johnson, A., Farooq, A. (2017) 'Skeletal maturation status is a more powerful selection effect than birth quarter for elite youth academy football players.' In Sports Medicine Australia conference 2016. 20. Melbourne, Australia, 12/10/2016 - 15/10/2016. Elsevier BV, pp. e86-e86.
Sailly, M., Whiteley, R., Johnson, A. (2013) 'Osgood Schlatter Disease—an ultrasound grading system with practical application.' In 2013 ASICS Conference of Science and Medicine in Sport. 16. Phuket, Thailand, 22/10/2013 - 25/10/2013. Elsevier, pp. e14-e14.