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.

Modelos de análisis para la prevención de lesiones en el deporte. Estudio epidemiológico de lesiones: el modelo Union of European Football Associations en el fútbol / Analysis models for the prevention of sports injuries. Epidemiological study of injuries: The UEFA model in football

El mundo del deporte, y el de la alta competición especialmente, comporta un considerable riesgo de sufrir lesiones por su nivel de exigencia física y psíquica. El origen multifactorial de las lesiones complica la identificación de los factores de riesgo y la búsqueda de estrategias para su prevención. Desde la publicación en 1992 del «modelo secuencial para la prevención de lesiones» de Van Mechelen, diferentes grupos han aportado nuevos criterios de análisis con el objetivo de determinar, desde una perspectiva científica, la eficacia y la eficiencia de dichos modelos. El primer paso ha sido siempre definir cuál es la magnitud real del problema. El modelo de estudio epidemiológico más referenciado y seguido es el propuesto por el equipo médico de expertos de la Union of European Football Associations (Hägglund, Walden y Ekstrand, 2005). El siguiente artículo resume y traduce en lengua castellana el contenido de estos artículos ya publicados como originales en distintas revistas, y que están siendo referentes en la búsqueda de diseños de protocolos de prevención de las lesiones deportivas («Es mejor prevenir que curar», Erasmus [1466–1536])(AU)

The world of sport and particularly at a highly competetive level, involves a substantial risk of injury due to the high level of physical and mental demands. The multifactorial origin of injuries makes it very difficult to identify the risk factors and prevention strategy programs. Since the publication in 1992 of “sequential model for injury prevention” by W. Mechelen, different groups have provided new criteria analyses aimed to determine, from a scientific perspective, the effectiveness and efficiency of these models. The first step is always to define the magnitude of the problem. The most referenced and followed epidemiological study model is that proposed by the UEFA medical experts team (in Hägglund, Walden and Ekstrand, 2005) The following article summarises and translates into the Spanish language the content of these articles that have been published as originals in various journals, and are associated with the search for designing protocols for the prevention of sports injuries. (“Better prevent than cure” Erasmus 466–1536)(AU)

Estudio lesional prospectivo en hockey hierba. Comparación con el fútbol / Male field hockey prospective injury study. Comparison with soccer

El trabajo que se presenta a continuación describe la incidencia, severidad, tipo y distribución anatómica de las lesiones de un equipo masculino de hockey sobre hierba dela división de honor española y de uno de fútbol de primera división. El hockey hierba es un deporte que, hasta la fecha, ha tenido un escaso seguimiento científico y del cual se disponen muy pocos trabajos de investigación des de un punto de vista metodológico. La gran mayoría de los trabajos existentes son de carácter retrospectivo y para competiciones concretas. En el siguiente estudio se establece una comparación entre las lesiones más frecuentes en cada uno de los deportes y de los diferentes factores de riesgo que las pueden producir siguiendo para su diagnóstico y clasificación el modelo de la UEFA para el estudio de las lesiones en el fútbol profesional. Los resultados nos muestran una mayor incidencia lesional en el hockey hierba respecto al fútbol a pesar de tener menos horas de exposición a lo largo de la temporada. Este hecho, como se comenta en la discusión del trabajo, puede ser explicado por el carácter semiprofesional de este deporte. Se objetiva también que la distribución de las lesiones más frecuentes guarda cierta relación comparando los dos deportes. Se trata además del primer estudio comparativo en nuestro país de incidencia lesional entre estos deportes, a la vez que el primer estudio prospectivo en el hockey hierba, esperando que sirva de punto de partida para el inicio de más trabajos acerca de la epidemiología lesional en un deporte semiprofesional (AU)

ThThe next work describes the injuries incidence, severity, type and anatomical distribution of a male field hockey team from the honour division and one Spanish first división soccer team. Field hockey is a sport that, up to date, has had a limited scientific follow-up and we just have few investigation studies from a methodological point of view. Most of the existing works had a retrospective methodology and are just for a concrete competitions or championships. Our study provides, in addition, a comparison between the most frequent injuries in each of the sports and between the risks factors that can produce them according with the diagnosis and classification of the UEFA model for the study of injuries in professional football. The results show us a major lesional incidence in field hockey in spite of having fewer exposition hours than football along the season. This fact, as it is commented in the discussion, can be made clear by the semiprofessional character of this sport. There is also targeted that the distribution of the most frequent injuries is in certain relation comparing both sports. It is also the first comparative study in our country of injury incidence between these sports, and the first prospective study in field hockey, waiting to serve as a starting point for more studies about it (AU)