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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.
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Lesões do Ligamento Cruzado Anterior , Traumatismos em Atletas , Traumatismos da Perna , Futebol , Humanos , Feminino , Lesões do Ligamento Cruzado Anterior/epidemiologia , Lesões do Ligamento Cruzado Anterior/complicações , Estudos Prospectivos , Estações do Ano , Coxa da Perna/lesões , Traumatismos em Atletas/epidemiologia , Traumatismos em Atletas/etiologia , Músculo Esquelético/lesões , Futebol/lesões , IncidênciaRESUMO
Objectives: The primary objective was to study the reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation and maintenance of the Nordic Hamstring Exercise (NHE) programme in women's elite teams in Europe in the 2020-21 season. The secondary objective was to compare hamstring injury rates between teams that used the NHE programme regularly in team training and teams that did not. Methods: Eleven teams participating in the Women's Elite Club Injury Study during the 2020-21 season provided data about injury rates and the implementation of the NHE programme. Results: One team (9%) used the full original NHE programme, and four teams used the programme in the team training during parts of the season (team training group, n=5). Five teams did not use the NHE, or used it only sporadically for individual players, and one team used NHE only for players with a previous or current hamstring injury (no team training group, n=6). The team training group had a lower incidence of hamstring injuries during match-play (1.4 vs 4.0, p=0.028) than the non-team training group while no difference between groups was shown for the hamstring injury incidence in training (0.6 vs 0.7, p=0.502). Conclusion: A low adoption of the NHE programme was reported during the 2020-21 season. However, teams that used NHE for the whole team or most players had a lower hamstring injury incidence at match-play than teams that did not use the NHE or used it for individual players only.
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Objectives: To describe the perceived importance of suggested hamstring injury risk factors according to chief medical officers (CMOs) of European male professional football clubs. A secondary objective was to compare if these perceptions differed between teams with a lower-than-average hamstring injury burden and teams with a higher than average hamstring injury burden. Methods: First, CMOs of 15 European professional male football clubs were asked to suggest risk factors for hamstring injury in their club. The perceived importance of the suggested risk factors was then rated by all participants on a 5-graded Likert scale. Participating teams were divided in two groups depending on their hamstring injury burden during the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 seasons. The LOW group consisted of seven teams that had a lower than average hamstring injury burden. The HIGH group consisted of eight teams that had a higher-than-average hamstring injury burden. Results: Twenty-one risk factors were suggested. The majority were extrinsic in nature, associated with coaching staff, team or club rather than players themselves. 'Lack of communication between medical staff and coaching staff' had the highest average importance (weighted average=3.7) followed by 'Lack of regular exposure to high-speed football during training sessions' (weighted average=3.6). The HIGH group perceived the player factors fatigue and wellness as more important than the LOW group. Conclusion: According to CMOs recruited in this study, most risk factors for hamstring injuries are extrinsic and associated with the club and coaching staff, and not the players themselves.
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Objectives: The primary objective was to study the adoption of the NHE programme in European football teams in the 2020/21 season and to compare it to the previous study. A second objective was to compare hamstring injury rates between teams that used the NHE programme in the team training and teams that used the NHE only for players with previous or current hamstring injuries. Methods: Data about the implementation of the NHE programme and injury rates were included for 17 teams participating in the Elite Club Injury Study during the 2020/2021 season. Results: One team (6%) used the full original NHE programme, and another four teams used it for all or most players in the team (team training group, n=5). Eleven teams used NHE only for players with a previous or current hamstring injury (individual training group), and one team did not use NHE. The team training group had fewer hamstring injuries (5 vs 11 per team, p=0.008) and a lower injury burden (12 vs 35 lay-off days per 1000 hours, p=0.003) than the individual training group. Conclusion: Similar to previous reports, low adoption of the NHE programme was seen in the 2020/2021 season. The low adoption rate (13%) relates to the number of teams fully or partly using NHE programmes. Teams that used NHE for the whole team or most players had a lower hamstring injury burden than teams that used NHE only for individual players.
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PURPOSE: To study the epidemiology and return to play characteristics of anterior and posterior ankle impingement syndromes (AAIS and PAIS) over 18 consecutive seasons in male professional soccer players. METHODS: Between the 2001-2002 and 2018-2019 seasons, 120 European soccer teams were followed prospectively for various seasons. Time loss injuries and player exposures were recorded individually in 6754 unique players. Injury incidence and burden were reported as the number of injuries and days absence per 1000 h with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Injury severity was reported as median absence in days with the interquartile range (IQR). RESULTS: Out of 25,462 reported injuries, 93 (0.4%) were diagnosed as AAIS (38%) or PAIS (62%) in 77 players. AAIS and PAIS were similar regarding injury characteristics except for a greater proportion of AAIS having a gradual onset (69% vs.47%; P = 0.03) and being re-injuries (31% vs. 9%; P = 0.01). Impingement syndromes resulted in an overall incidence of 0.03 injuries (95% CI 0.02-0.03) per 1000 h and an injury burden of 0.4 absence days per 1000 h. PAIS incidence was significantly higher than that for AAIS [0.02 (95% CI 0.002-0.03) vs. 0.01 (95% CI 0.005-0.01) injuries per 1000 h (RR = 1.7). The absence was significantly longer in AAIS than in PAIS [10 (22) vs. 6 (11) days; P = 0.023]. Impingement syndromes that presented with a gradual onset had longer absences in comparison to impingement with an acute onset [8 (22) vs. 5 (11) days; P = 0.014]. Match play was associated with a higher incidence and greater injury burden than training: 0.08 vs. 0.02 injuries per 1000 h (RR 4.7), respectively, and 0.9 vs. 0.3 days absence per 1000 h (RR 2.5). CONCLUSION: Ankle injuries are frequent in men's professional soccer and ankle impingement is increasingly recognized as a common source of pain, limited range of motion, and potential time loss. In our study, ankle impingement was the cause of time loss in less than 0.5% of all injuries. PAIS was more frequently reported than AAIS, but AAIS was associated with more absence days and a higher re-injury rate than PAIS. The findings in this study can assist the physician in best practice management on ankle impingment syndromes in professional football. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II.
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Traumatismos do Tornozelo , Relesões , Futebol , Humanos , Masculino , Incidência , Estudos Prospectivos , Relesões/epidemiologia , Futebol/lesões , Síndrome , Traumatismos do Tornozelo/epidemiologiaRESUMO
BACKGROUND: Studies on football and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have mainly focused on the lockdown consequences for player fitness, the resumption of football training, and how to safely restart the league play, but injury data are scarce. OBJECTIVE: To describe the injury incidence and injury burden in men's professional football teams during the pandemic year of 2020. METHODS: Nineteen teams in 12 countries prospectively registered data on player-exposure and time-loss injuries throughout 2020. All major football leagues were paused as a direct response to the pandemic in March 2020 and were thereafter completely cancelled or restarted after a lockdown interval of at least two months. Historical data from 43 teams in the same cohort during the five preceding years (2015-2019) were used as reference. Between-season and within-season comparisons were made for injury incidence (number of injuries per 1000 h) and injury burden (number of absence days per 1000 h) with 95% confidence intervals and interquartile ranges. RESULTS: There was no increased match injury incidence or injury burden following the restart in 2020 compared with other time periods of 2020 and the corresponding periods 2015-2019. There was an increased training injury incidence and injury burden immediately during the lockdown in 2020, and they remained elevated also following the restart, being higher in 2020 compared with 2015-2019, respectively. The injury characteristics during the first months of the new 2020/21 season (August/September-December) were similar between the five teams that cancelled their 2019/20 season in March 2020 and the 14 teams that restarted their season in May/June 2020. CONCLUSIONS: There was no increased match injury incidence or injury burden following the COVID-19 lockdown and restart of the football season in 2020, but training injury incidence and injury burden were elevated and higher than in 2015-2019.
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OBJECTIVES: To: (1) describe hamstring injury incidence and burden in male professional football players over 21 seasons (2001/02 to 2021/22); (2) analyse the time-trends of hamstring muscle injuries over the most recent eight seasons (2014/15 to 2021/22); and (3) describe hamstring injury location, mechanism and recurrence rate. METHODS: 3909 players from 54 teams (in 20 European countries) from 2001/02 to 2021/22 (21 consecutive seasons) were included. Team medical staff recorded individual player exposure and time-loss injuries. Time-trend analyses were performed with Poisson regression using generalised linear models. RESULTS: 2636 hamstring injuries represented 19% of all reported injuries, with the proportion of all injuries increasing from 12% during the first season to 24% in the most recent season. During that same period, the percentage of all injury absence days caused by hamstring injuries increased from 10% to 20%. Between 2014/15 and 2021/22, training hamstring injury incidence increased (6.7% annually, 95% CI 1.7% to 12.5%) as did burden (9.0% annually, 95% CI 1.2% to 18.3%). During those years, the match hamstring injury incidence also increased (3.9% annually, 95% CI 0.1% to 7.9%) and with the same trend (not statistically significant) for match hamstring injury burden (6.2% annually, 95% CI -0.5% to 15.0%). CONCLUSIONS: Hamstring injury proportions-in number of injuries and total absence days-doubled during the 21-year period of study. During the last eight seasons, hamstring injury rates have increased both in training and match play.
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OBJECTIVE: To describe the injury epidemiology in professional football in South America and compare it with European professional football. METHODS: Data about football exposures and injury occurrences were registered in Six teams participating in Copa Libertadores in 2016. These teams' exposure and injury data were compared with teams participating in the UEFA Elite Club Injury Study during the 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 seasons. RESULTS: A total of 271 injuries were reported in the South American cohort representing a training injury incidence of 3.2 (95% CI=2.7 to 3.7) injuries/1000 hours of training exposure and 20.9 (95% CI=17.3 to 25.1) injuries/1000 hours of match exposure. While no differences in muscle injury incidence were observed between South American and European teams, the ligament injury incidence in training among South American teams was significantly higher than European teams (0.6 vs 0.3, RR 1.87, 95% CI 1.21 to 2.87). In addition, a significantly higher proportion of all reported injuries among South American teams than European teams occurred in training. CONCLUSIONS: A larger proportion of injuries occur in training in South American compared with European professional football. Specifically, ligament injuries in training were more frequent among South American teams.
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BACKGROUND: The literature on upper extremity injuries in professional soccer players is scarce, and further insight into the onset and cause of these injuries as well as potential differences between goalkeepers and outfield players is important. PURPOSE: To investigate the epidemiology of hand, wrist, and forearm injuries in male professional soccer players between 2001 and 2019. STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive epidemiology study. METHODS: Between the 2001-2002 and 2018-2019 seasons, 120 European male soccer teams were followed prospectively for a varying number of seasons (558 team-seasons in total). Time-loss injuries and player-exposures to training sessions and matches were recorded on an individual basis in 6754 unique players. Injury incidence was reported as the number of injuries per 1000 player-hours, and between-group differences were analyzed using Z statistics and rate ratios (RRs) with 95% CIs. Between-group differences in layoff time were analyzed. RESULTS: In total, 25,462 injuries were recorded, with 238 (0.9%) of these affecting the hand (71.4%; n = 170), wrist (16.8%; n = 40), and forearm (11.8%; n = 28), producing an incidence of 0.065 injuries per 1000 hours. A majority of the injuries were traumatic with an acute onset (98.7%; n = 235). Fractures were the most common injuries recorded (58.8%; n = 140), often involving the metacarpal bones (25.2%; n = 60) and phalanges (10.1%; n = 24). The injury incidence was significantly higher for goalkeepers (115 injuries; 0.265 per 1000 hours) compared with outfield players (123 injuries; 0.038 per 1000 hours) (RR, 7.0 [95% CI, 5.4-9.0]). Goalkeepers also had a significantly longer mean layoff time than outfield players (23 ± 27 vs 15 ± 27 days; P = .016). CONCLUSION: Injuries to the hand, wrist, and forearm constituted less than 1% of all time-loss injuries in male professional soccer players. Fractures were most common and constituted more than half of all injuries. Goalkeepers had a 7-fold higher incidence and an over 1-week longer mean layoff time compared with outfield players.
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BACKGROUND: The UEFA Elite Club Injury Study is the largest and longest running injury surveillance programme in football. OBJECTIVE: To analyse the 18-season time trends in injury rates among male professional football players. METHODS: 3302 players comprising 49 teams (19 countries) were followed from 2000-2001 through 2018-2019. Team medical staff recorded individual player exposure and time-loss injuries. RESULTS: A total of 11 820 time-loss injuries were recorded during 1 784 281 hours of exposure. Injury incidence fell gradually during the 18-year study period, 3% per season for both training injuries (95% CI 1% to 4% decrease, p=0.002) and match injuries (95% CI 2% to 3% decrease, p<0.001). Ligament injury incidence decreased 5% per season during training (95% CI 3% to 7% decrease, p<0.001) and 4% per season during match play (95% CI 3% to 6% decrease, p<0.001), while the rate of muscle injuries remained constant. The incidence of reinjuries decreased by 5% per season during both training (95% CI 2% to 8% decrease, p=0.001) and matches (95% CI 3% to 7% decrease, p<0.001). Squad availability increased by 0.7% per season for training sessions (95% CI 0.5% to 0.8% increase, p<0.001) and 0.2% per season for matches (95% CI 0.1% to 0.3% increase, p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Over 18 years: (1) injury incidence decreased in training and matches, (2) reinjury rates decreased, and (3) player availability for training and match play increased.
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Traumatismos em Atletas , Futebol , Traumatismos em Atletas/epidemiologia , Humanos , Incidência , Masculino , Estudos Prospectivos , Futebol/lesõesRESUMO
BACKGROUND: It has been hypothesised that injury risk after return to play following an injury absence is influenced by the amount of training completed before return to competition. AIM: To analyse if the number of completed training sessions between return to play and the first subsequent match appearance was associated with the odds of injury in men's professional football. METHODS: From a cohort study, including 303 637 individual matches, 4805 first match appearances after return to play following moderate to severe injuries (≥8 days absence) were analysed. Rate ratios (RRs) were used to compare injury rates in the first match appearances with the average seasonal match injury rate. Odds ratios (ORs) were used to analyse associations between the number of completed training sessions and general (all injuries), muscle, and non-muscle injury odds. RESULTS: Injury rate in the first match after return to play was increased by 87% compared with the average seasonal match injury rate (46.9 vs 25.0/1000 hours, RR=1.87; 95% CI 1.64 to 2.14). The odds of injury dropped 7% with each training session before the first match (OR 0.93; 95% CI 0.87 to 0.98). The same association was found for muscle injuries (OR 0.87; 95% CI 0.79 to 0.95) but not for non-muscle injuries (OR 0.99; 95% CI 0.91 to 1.07). CONCLUSIONS: Injury rates in the first match after injury are higher than the average seasonal match injury rate, but the propensity for player injury is decreased when players complete more training sessions before their first match.
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Traumatismos em Atletas/epidemiologia , Condicionamento Físico Humano/estatística & dados numéricos , Volta ao Esporte , Futebol/lesões , Comportamento Competitivo/fisiologia , Humanos , Masculino , Estudos Prospectivos , Fatores de RiscoRESUMO
OBJECTIVES: The objective was to describe the typical duration of absence following the most common injury diagnoses in professional football. METHODS: Injuries were registered by medical staff members of football clubs participating in the Union of European Football Association Elite Club Injury Study. Duration of absence due to an injury was defined by the number of days that passed between the date of the injury occurrence and the date when the medical team allowed the player to return to full participation. In total, 22 942 injuries registered during 494 team-seasons were included in the study. RESULTS: The 31 most common injury diagnoses constituted a total of 78 % of all reported injuries. Most of these injuries were either mild (leading to a median absence of 7 days or less, 6440 cases = 42%) or moderate (median absence: 7-28 days, 56% = 8518 cases) while only few (2% = 311 cases) were severe (median absence of >28 days). The mean duration of absence from training and competition was significantly different (p < 0.05) between index injuries and re-injuries for six diagnoses (Achilles tendon pain, calf muscle injury, groin adductor pain, hamstring muscle injuries and quadriceps muscle injury) with longer absence following re-injuries for all six diagnoses CONCLUSIONS: The majority of all time loss due to injuries in professional football stems from injuries with an individual absence of up to 4 weeks. This article can provide guidelines for expected time away from training and competition for the most common injury types as well as for its realistic range.
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Traumatismos em Atletas/epidemiologia , Volta ao Esporte , Futebol/lesões , Traumatismos em Atletas/diagnóstico , Comportamento Competitivo/fisiologia , Europa (Continente)/epidemiologia , Humanos , Escala de Gravidade do Ferimento , Masculino , Condicionamento Físico Humano , Prognóstico , Recidiva , Fatores de TempoRESUMO
AIM: To determine the epidemiology of isolated syndesmotic injuries in professional football players. METHODS: Data from 15 consecutive seasons of European professional football between 2001 and 2016 contributed to the dataset of this study. Match play and training data from a total of 3677 players from 61 teams across 17 countries have been included. Team medical staff recorded player exposure and time loss injuries. Injury incidence was defined as the number of injuries per 1000 player-hours. Injury burden was defined as number of days absence per 1000 player-hours. Seasonal trends for isolated syndesmotic injury incidence, isolated syndesmotic injury proportion of ankle ligament injuries and isolated syndesmotic injury burden were analysed via linear regression. RESULTS: The isolated syndesmotic injury incidence was 0.05 injuries per 1000 hours of exposure (95% CI 0.04 to 0.06) or one injury per team every three seasons. The injury incidence during match play was 13 times higher compared with during training, 0.21 (95% CI 0.16 to 0.26) and 0.02 (95% CI 0.01 to 0.02), respectively. Out of the 1320 ankle ligament injuries registered during the 15 seasons, 94 (7%) were diagnosed as isolated syndesmotic injuries. An annual increase in injury incidence was observed (R2=0.495, b=0.003, 95% CI 0.001 to 0.004, P=0.003). However, no significant annual change of injury burden was observed (R2=0.033, b=0.032, 95% CI -0.073 to 0.138, P=0.520). Seventy-four per cent of the injuries were contact related, and the mean (±SD) absence following an isolated syndesmotic injury was 39 (±28) days. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of isolated syndesmotic injuries in elite professional European football annually increased between 2001 and 2016.
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Traumatismos do Tornozelo/epidemiologia , Volta ao Esporte , Futebol/lesões , Comportamento Competitivo/fisiologia , Europa (Continente)/epidemiologia , Humanos , Incidência , Ligamentos Articulares/lesões , Masculino , Condicionamento Físico Humano/efeitos adversos , Estudos Prospectivos , Estações do AnoRESUMO
BACKGROUND: The association between match congestion and injury rates in professional football has yielded conflicting results. AIM: To analyse associations between match congestion on an individual player level and injury rates during professional football matches. METHODS: Data from a prospective cohort study of professional football with 133 170 match observations were analysed with Poisson regressions. Associations between short-term match congestion, defined as number of days between two match exposures (≤3, 4, 5, 6 and 7-10 days) and injury rates were analysed. To analyse the influence of long-term match congestion, defined as individual match exposure hours in the 30 days preceding a match, observations were categorised into three groups (low, ≤4.5; medium, >4.5 to ≤7.5; and high, >7.5 hours). RESULTS: No differences in total match injury rates were found between the reference category (≤3 days) and the other categories of short-term congestion. Muscle injury rates were significantly lower in matches preceded by 6 (rate ratio (RR) 0.79; 95% CI 0.65 to 0.95) or 7-10 days (RR 0.81; 95% CI 0.71 to 0.93) compared with ≤3 days since the last match exposure. No differences in total and muscle injury rates between the three long-term match congestion groups were found. CONCLUSIONS: In this study of male professional football players, there were no match congestion-related differences in total match injury rates, but muscle injury rates during matches were lower when players were given at least 6 days between their match exposures.
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Traumatismos em Atletas/epidemiologia , Músculo Esquelético/lesões , Futebol/lesões , Atletas , Humanos , Incidência , Masculino , Estudos Prospectivos , Fatores de TempoRESUMO
BACKGROUND: There are limited data on the nature, type and incidence of illness in football. Previous studies indicate that gastrointestinal and respiratory tract illnesses are most common. AIM: To describe the incidence and burden of illness in male professional football. METHODS: Over the 4-year study period, 2011-2014, 73 professional football teams in Europe participated, with a total of 1â 261â 367 player-days recorded. All time-loss illnesses were recorded by the medical staff of each club. A recordable illness episode was any physical or psychological symptom (not related to injury) that resulted in the player being unable to participate fully in training or match play. RESULTS: A total of 1914 illness episodes were recorded. The illness incidence was 1.5 per 1000 player-days, meaning that, on average, a player experienced an illness episode every second season, with a median of 3â days absence per illness episode. Severe illness (absence >4â weeks) constituted 2% of all illnesses. Respiratory tract illness was the most common (58%), followed by gastrointestinal illness (38%). Respiratory tract illness, gastrointestinal illness and cardiovascular illness caused the highest illness burden. CONCLUSIONS: The illness incidence among male professional football players is low compared with the injury incidence. We found that the highest illness burden was caused by illness to the respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract and cardiovascular system.
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Doença , Infecções/epidemiologia , Futebol , Atletas , Efeitos Psicossociais da Doença , Europa (Continente)/epidemiologia , Humanos , Incidência , MasculinoRESUMO
BACKGROUND: The influence of fixture congestion on injury rates and team performance has only been scarcely investigated. AIM: To study associations between recovery time and match load and injury rates and team performance in professional football. METHODS: Exposure and time loss injuries were registered prospectively from 27 teams over 11 seasons. Matches were grouped according to recovery days before each match (≤3 vs >3 days, and ≤4 vs ≥6 days). Injury rates and team performance were compared between groups. Match load in match sequences containing five consecutive matches was determined by the number of days separating the first match and the last training session during that match sequence. Linear regression was used to study associations between match load and injury rates and team performance. RESULTS: Team performance showed no association with match load, or recovery days prior to matches, except for Europa League matches that indicated more matches lost with short recovery (≤3 days) (p=0.048). Total injury rates and muscle injury rates were increased in league matches with ≤4 days compared with ≥6 days' recovery (RR 1.09, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.18, and RR 1.32, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.51, respectively), specifically hamstring and quadriceps injuries. High match load was associated with increase in muscle injury rate in matches in the same match sequence (p=0.012), and increase in ligament injury rate in training in the subsequent match sequence (p=0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Fixture congestion was associated with increased muscle injury rates but had no, or very limited, influence on team performance.
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Músculo Esquelético/lesões , Futebol/lesões , Traumatismos em Atletas/epidemiologia , Traumatismos em Atletas/fisiopatologia , Desempenho Atlético/fisiologia , Seguimentos , Humanos , Masculino , Músculo Esquelético/fisiologia , Estudos Prospectivos , Recuperação de Função Fisiológica , Fatores de Risco , Futebol/fisiologia , Fatores de Tempo , Carga de Trabalho/estatística & dados numéricosRESUMO
BACKGROUND: The influence of injuries on team performance in football has only been scarcely investigated. AIM: To study the association between injury rates and team performance in the domestic league play, and in European cups, in male professional football. METHODS: 24 football teams from nine European countries were followed prospectively for 11 seasons (2001-2012), including 155 team-seasons. Individual training and match exposure and time-loss injuries were registered. To analyse the effect of injury rates on performance, a Generalised Estimating Equation was used to fit a linear regression on team-level data. Each team's season injury rate and performance were evaluated using its own preceding season data for comparison in the analyses. RESULTS: 7792 injuries were reported during 1 026 104 exposure hours. The total injury incidence was 7.7 injuries/1000 h, injury burden 130 injury days lost/1000 h and player match availability 86%. Lower injury burden (p=0.011) and higher match availability (p=0.031) were associated with higher final league ranking. Similarly, lower injury incidence (p=0.035), lower injury burden (p<0.001) and higher match availability (p<0.001) were associated with increased points per league match. Finally, lower injury burden (p=0.043) and higher match availability (p=0.048) were associated with an increase in the Union of European Football Association (UEFA) Season Club Coefficient, reflecting success in the UEFA Champions League or Europa League. CONCLUSIONS: Injuries had a significant influence on performance in the league play and in European cups in male professional football. The findings stress the importance of injury prevention to increase a team's chances of success.
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Desempenho Atlético/fisiologia , Futebol/lesões , Absenteísmo , Traumatismos em Atletas/epidemiologia , Traumatismos em Atletas/fisiopatologia , Europa (Continente)/epidemiologia , Seguimentos , Humanos , Incidência , Masculino , Estudos Prospectivos , Futebol/fisiologia , Futebol/estatística & dados numéricosRESUMO
BACKGROUND: Player activities in soccer matches are influenced by the match result and match venue. It is not known whether injury rates are influenced by these factors. PURPOSE: To investigate whether there are associations between injury rates and the match result, venue, and type of competition in male soccer. STUDY DESIGN: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. METHODS: Twenty-six professional clubs from 10 countries were followed prospectively during 9 seasons (2001-2002 to 2009-2010). All matches, and injuries occurring in these matches, were registered by the team's medical staff. An injury was registered if it resulted in player absence from training or matches. Information about match result, venue, and type of competition for all reported matches was gathered by the authors from online databases. Injury rates in matches with varying match characteristics were compared by use of generalized estimating equations. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. RESULTS: A total of 2738 injuries during 6010 matches were registered. There were no associations between odds of 1 injury occurrence and match result or type of competition, whereas the odds were decreased in matches played away compared with home matches (OR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.80-0.99). The odds of 2 or more injury occurrences in a match were increased in matches resulting in a draw (OR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.15-1.69) or loss (OR, 1.66; 95% CI, 1.38-1.98) compared with matches won and were decreased in other cup matches compared with league matches (OR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.39-0.84) and in matches played away compared with home matches (OR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.60-0.82). Finally, injuries with more than 1 week's absence occurred more frequently in Champions League matches compared with league matches both for matches with 1 injury (OR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.09-1.45) and matches with 2 or more injuries (OR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.13-2.20). CONCLUSION: The odds of 2 or more injury occurrences in professional soccer were higher in matches resulting in a loss or a draw compared with a win, whereas the odds of injury occurrences were lower in matches played away compared with home matches. The rate of moderate and severe injuries increased with the importance of the match.
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Traumatismos em Atletas/epidemiologia , Futebol/lesões , Europa (Continente)/epidemiologia , Humanos , Masculino , Estudos Prospectivos , Estudos RetrospectivosRESUMO
PURPOSE: To investigate the epidemiology of upper extremity injuries in male elite football players and to describe their characteristics, incidence and lay-off times. METHODS: Between 2001 and 2011, 57 male European elite football teams (2,914 players and 6,215 player seasons) were followed prospectively. Time-loss injuries and exposure to training and matches were recorded on individual basis. RESULTS: In total, 11,750 injuries were recorded, 355 (3 %) of those affected the upper extremities giving an incidence of 0.23 injuries/1,000 h of football. The incidence in match play was almost 7 times higher than in training (0.83 vs. 0.12 injuries/1,000 h, rate ratio 6.7, 95 % confidence interval 5.5-8.3). As much as 32 % of traumatic match injuries occurred as a result of foul play situations. Goalkeepers had a significantly higher incidence of upper extremity injuries compared to outfield players (0.80 vs. 0.16 injuries/1,000 h, rate ratio 5.0, 95 % confidence interval 4.0-6.2). The average absence due to an upper extremity injury was 23 ± 34 days. CONCLUSIONS: Upper extremity injuries are uncommon among male elite football players. Goalkeepers, however, are prone to upper extremity injury, with a five times higher incidence compared to outfield players. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II.