Analysis of Injury Patterns in Men’s Football between the English League and the Spanish League

Abstract

Background: Injuries in professional football lead to reduced team performance and large financial losses. The aim of this study was to analyse injuries in the two best team competitions in the world (LaLiga and Premier League), establishing similarities and differences, as well as determining injury causation patterns. Methods: A total of 277 on-field injuries requiring a substitution were analysed (142 in the Spanish league and 135 in the English league). The analysis was performed using traditional statistical tests (frequency analysis, chi-square test) with SPSS 25 and a T-Patterns sequence analysis with THEME 5.0. Results: In the Spanish league, there were a similar number of injuries in the first part of the season as in the second part of the season, while in the English league, they are more frequent in the first part of the season. In the Spanish league, injuries are more frequent in the first half of the match, while in the English league, they are more frequent in the second half. The type of player most frequently injured was the defender. Most of the injuries occurred without the presence of an opponent. The accumulated minutes during the season affect injuries of the muscular type. Conclusions: The most common type of injury in both leagues was a strain, followed by a sprain and a contusion. Although common injury patterns can be established between the two leagues, there are notable differences. One of the factors is determined by the English league calendar (many matches at Christmas). In Spain, there were more muscular injuries that were not caused by the opponent, while in England there were more tackling injuries. Age is a risk factor in the Spanish league. In this league, there is a moderately significant relationship between the number of injuries and the points won.

The Preventive Warm up to Reduce No-Contact Injury Risk in Amateur Male Soccer Players

“…Despite this programme being proven to be effective in the prevention of injuries in female soccers' knees, it is not applicable to muscle injuries in the thigh, groin, etc. (Slauterbeck et al, 2019;Bizzini & Dvorak, 2015 Another of the aspects proposed to contribute to the advancement of the search for solutions to this issue is to assess the epidemiology of the injuries, establishing the risk of suffering from them and the circumstances in which they occur (Argibay-González et al, 2022;Stephenson et al, 2021;Ekstrand et al, 2009). This data could be very useful because it could provide a good definition of which are the main injuries that occur in football and therefore, the path that should be taken to orientate planned preventive strategies.…”

Higher age and present injury at the start of the season are risk factors for in‐season injury in amateur male and female football players—a prospective cohort study

“…A higher injury incidence in older players compared to younger players has been reported in youth football [17, 27, 34, 41, 42], in adult female football [12], and in elite female football [1]. In elite male football, the association between age and injury is inconclusive with contradicting findings [3, 4, 18, 20, 22].…”