Risk Factors for Injuries in Football

To undertake a prospective epidemiological study of the injuries sustained in English professional football over two competitive seasons. Player injuries were annotated by club medical staff at 91 professional football clubs. A specific injury audit questionnaire was used together with a weekly form that documented each club's current injury status. A total of 6,030 injuries were reported over the two seasons with an average of 1.3 injuries per player per season. The mean (SD) number of days absent for each injury was 24.2 (40.2), with 78% of the injuries leading to a minimum of one competitive match being missed. The injury incidence varied throughout the season, with training injuries peaking during July (p<0.05) and match injuries peaking during August (p<0.05). Competition injuries represented 63% of those reported, significantly (p<0.01) more of these injuries occurring towards the end of both halves. Strains (37%) and sprains (19%) were the major injury types, the lower extremity being the site of 87% of the injuries reported. Most injury mechanisms were classified as being non-contact (58%). Re-injuries accounted for 7% of all injuries, 66% of these being classified as either a strain or a sprain. The severity of re-injuries was greater than the initial injury (p<0.01). Professional football players are exposed to a high risk of injury and there is a need to investigate ways of reducing this risk. Areas that warrant attention include the training programmes implemented by clubs during various stages of the season, the factors contributing to the pattern of injuries during matches with respect to time, and the rehabilitation protocols employed by clubs.

In brief: The assessment of body composition has become an important method for determining a desirable body weight of adults and athletes. Hydrostatic weighing is a popular and valid method, but it is often not feasible for the clinical setting or for mass testing; thus, anthropometry has become the preferred method. This article reviews the scientific basis for generalized body composition prediction equations and provides methods for evaluating body composition. The authors recommend using a sum of three skinfolds (triceps, chest, and subscapula for men and triceps, abdomen, and suprailium for women) and give detailed instructions for securing accurate measurements of body fat.

To define the causes of injuries to players in English professional football during competition and training. Lost time injuries to professional and youth players were prospectively recorded by physiotherapists at four English League clubs over the period 1994 to 1997. Data recorded included information related to the injury, date and place of occurrence, type of activity, and extrinsic Playing factors. In all, 67% of all injuries occurred during competition. The overall injury frequency rate (IFR) was 8.5 injuries/1000 hours, with the IFR during competitions (27.7) being significantly (p < 0.01) higher than that during training (3.5). The IFRs for youth players were found to increase over the second half of the season, whereas they decreased for professional players. There were no significant differences in IFRs for professional and youth players during training. There were significantly (p < 0.01) injuries in competition in the 15 minute periods at the end of each half. Strains (41%), sprains (20%), and contusions (20%) represented the major types of injury. The thigh (23%), the ankle (17%), knee (14%), and lower leg (13%) represented the major locations of injury, with significantly (p < 0.01) more injuries to the dominant body side. Reinjury counted for 22% of all injuries. Only 12% of all injuries were caused by a breach of the rules of football, although player to player contact was involved in 41% of all injuries. The overall level of injury to professional footballers has been showed to be around 1000 times higher times higher than for industrial occupations generally regarded as high risk. The high level of muscle strains, in particular, indicates possible weakness in fitness training programmes and use of warming up and cooling down procedures by clubs and the need for benchmarking players' levels of fitness and performance. Increasing levels of injury to youth players as a season progresses emphasizes the importance of controlling the exposure of young players to high levels of competition.