Although the 11+ is known to reduce injuries and improve performance in adolescent footballers, its duration presents a notable barrier to implementation. Hence, this study investigated injury and performance outcomes when 65 elite male academy footballers either performed Part 2 3x / week at training (TG) or at home (HG). Time to stabilisation (TTS), eccentric hamstring strength (EH-S) and countermovement jump height (CMJ-H) were collected four times during the 2019 football season.Linear mixed-models were used to evaluate main and interaction effects of group and time.Bonferroni post-hoc tests were used to account for multiple comparisons. Differences in time loss and medical attention injuries were determined using a 2-tailed Z test for a comparison of rates. Relative to baseline, EH-S (HG 4.3 kg, 95% CI 3 to 5.7, p < 0.001; TG 5.5 kg, 95% CI 4.3 to 6.6, p < 0.001) and CMJ-H (HG 3.5 cm, 95% CI 2.2 to 4.7, p < 0.001; TG 3.2 cm, 95% CI 2.2 to 4.3, p < 0.001) increased, with no difference between groups observed at the end of the season. All injury outcomes were similar.Hence, rescheduling Part 2 did not affect performance or increased injury risks in academy footballers.

Context There is growing concern among soccer players, coaches and parents regarding head and neck injuries, including concussion, particularly from heading a ball. Thus, creating a need to explore soccer-specific head injury risk reduction initiatives. One such initiative is to condition the neck musculature of young players by adding neuromuscular neck exercises into existing injury reduction exercise programs. Objectives To investigate the effect of neuromuscular neck exercises completed as part of an injury risk reduction exercise program on the incidence of soccer-related head and neck injuries in adolescent (12–18 years) soccer players. Design Prospective Cohort Study Setting Two sports high School and six soccer clubs Participants n=364 male and female soccer players, aged 12–18 years Intervention We targeted one sports high school and two soccer clubs who completed neuromuscular neck exercises contained within an injury reduction program during training (Neck Training Group) as well as another sports high school and four soccer clubs who completed an injury reduction program but without neck exercise (Comparison Group) during the 2021 soccer season. Main Outcome Measure Self-reported injury data were collected from each player at the end of the season and used to calculate incidence rate ratios (IRR) with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). Results In total, 364 players completed the study, including 146 players in the Neck Training Group and 218 players in the Comparison Group. Despite players in the Neck Training Group being less likely to self-report a concussion (incidence rate ratio (IRR): 0.23 (95%CI 0.03–1.04) and pain on heading a ball (IRR:0.62 (95%CI 0.34–1.07), only lower incidence of potential concussive events (IRR:0.38 (95%CI 0.14–0.90); p&lt;0.05) was significant. Conclusion Integrating neuromuscular neck exercises into injury reduction exercise programs has the potential to reduce the risk of sustaining a potential concussive event, concussion and/or pain on heading a ball in adolescent soccer players.

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