UEFA Women's Elite Club Injury Study: a prospective study on 1527 injuries over four consecutive seasons 2018/2019 to 2021/2022 reveals thigh muscle injuries to be most common and ACL injuries most burdensome.

OBJECTIVE: Injuries in women's football (soccer) have scarcely been investigated, and no study has been conducted in the highest competitive level involving club teams from different countries. Our aim was to investigate the time-loss injury epidemiology and characteristics among women's elite football players over four seasons. METHODS: 596 players from 15 elite women's teams in Europe were studied prospectively during the 2018/2019 to 2021/2022 seasons (44 team seasons). Medical staff recorded individual player exposure and time-loss injuries. Injury incidence was calculated as the number of injuries per 1000 playing hours and injury burden as the number of days lost per 1000 hours. RESULTS: 1527 injuries were recorded in 463 players with an injury incidence of 6.7 (95% CI 6.4 to 7.0) injuries per 1000 hours and a nearly fourfold higher incidence during match play compared with training (18.4, 95% CI 16.9 to 19.9 vs 4.8, 95% CI 4.5 to 5.1; rate ratio 3.8, 95% CI 3.5 to 4.2). Thigh muscle injuries (hamstrings 12%, 188/1527, and quadriceps 11%, 171/1527) were the most frequent injury, while anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury had the highest burden (38.0 days lost per 1000 hours, IQR 29.2-52.1) with median days lost of 292 (IQR 246-334) days. Concussions constituted 3% (47/1527) of all injuries, with more than half of them (55%, 26/47) due to ball-related impact. CONCLUSION: An elite women's football team can expect approximately 35 time-loss injuries per season. Thigh muscle injury was the most common injury and ACL injury had the highest injury burden.

Core muscle strength can be reliably measured using a novel isokinetic device: An intra-observer study.

BACKGROUND: Core strength is an important aspect of physical fitness. A dynamometer was developed to measure isokinetic core muscle strength in multiple planes of motion. Establishing the reliability is needed before it can be used in practice. OBJECTIVE: Examine the intra-observer reliability of a trunk isokinetic dynamometer. METHODS: 31 participants were recruited. Tests were performed twice with an interval of 5-9 days by the same observer. Testing included rotation, flexion/extension and lateral flexion at speeds of 90∘/s and 60∘/s. The main outcome measure was peak torque (PT). The secondary outcomes included peak torque angle (PTA), time to peak torque (TTPT) and compensatory torques (CompTQ). The intra-observer reliability was investigated using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). RESULTS: Peak torque reliability was good to excellent (ICC = 0.70-0.91), whereas the reliability of the PTA (ICC =-0.04-0.56) and TTPT (ICC = 0.01-0.68) were poor to moderate. CompTQ reliability was moderate to good (ICC = 0.20-0.88). CONCLUSIONS: The intra-observer reliability of the isokinetic measurement of core strength peak torque was good. The secondary outcomes peak torque angle and time to peak torque were less reliable and the compensatory torques showed moderate to good reliability. This isokinetic dynamometer could have useful applications in the field of sports medicine and rehabilitation.