Injury incidence and injury patterns in professional football: the UEFA injury study

Abstract

Objective To study the injury characteristics in professional football and to follow the variation of injury incidence during a match, during a season and over consecutive seasons. Design Prospective cohort study where teams were followed for seven consecutive seasons. Team medical staff recorded individual player exposure and time-loss injuries from 2001 to 2008. Setting European professional men's football. Participants The first team squads of 23 teams selected by the Union of European Football Associations as belonging to the 50 best European teams. Main outcome measurement Injury incidence. Results 4483 injuries occurred during 566 000 h of exposure, giving an injury incidence of 8.0 injuries/1000 h. The injury incidence during matches was higher than in training (27.5 vs 4.1, pConclusions The training and match injury incidences were stable over seven seasons. The risk of injury increased with time in each half of matches.