Sports injuries profile of a first division Brazilian soccer team: a descriptive cohort study

Abstract

Objective: To establish the injury profile of soccer players from a first division Brazilian soccer team. In addition, we investigated the association between the characteristics of the injuries and the player's age and position. Method: Forty-eight players from a Brazilian first division soccer team were followed during one season. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the injury profile. Spearman's tests were used to verify the association between the number and severity of injuries and the player's age. Chi-square test was used to verify the association between type of injury and player's position. Fisher's exact test was used to verify the association between the severity of injuries and player's position. Results: The incidence of injuries was 42.84/1000 hours in matches and 2.40/1000 hours in training. The injury severity was 19.5±34.4 days off competition or training. Lower limb was the most common location of injury and most injuries were muscular/tendinous, overuse, non-recurrent, and non-contact injuries. Player's age correlated with the amount and severity of muscle and tendon injuries. Defenders had more minimal injuries (1-3 days lost), while forwards had more moderate (8-28 days lost) and severe injuries (>28 days lost). Furthermore, wingbacks had more muscle and tendon injuries, while midfielders had more joint and ligament injuries. Conclusion: The injury profile of the Brazilian players investigated in this study reflected regional differences in soccer practices. Results confirm the influence of the player's age and position on the soccer injuries profile.

Sports injuries in soccer according to tactical position: a retrospective survey

“…In the epidemiological context, greater prevalence of sports injuries in forwards was in accordance with previous findings [12,23]; some studies documented that other soccer positions were associated with greater predominance of injuries though [11,28], while additional authors verified comparable prevalence among all soccer positions [10,29]. Likewise, increased onset of sports injuries in lower limbs related by line soccer players has been sustained in other investigations [14,22,28].…”

“…In combination with high competitive demand, these conditions contribute to a high frequency of physical contact, and have been associated to repetitive running, jumps, and speed changes in terms of continuous displacements. Consequently, these circumstances might be associated, respectively, to a greater proportion of traumatic joint injuries in knee and ankle sites [14,23,28], besides ruptures of hamstring and groin muscles in wingers and forwards (Table 3). These results are also related with functional specialties, characterized by important muscle requirements in terms of explosion and potency [31,33].…”

Musculoskeletal injuries in athletes from five modalities: a cross-sectional study

“…Our result is in agreement with that of Graças and colleagues, who observed a prevalence of 82.6% of MSK-I in Brazilian jiu-jitsu athletes [16]. In addition, 65% of first division soccer athletes showed some MSK-I type during the season [17], and 58% of university athletes from fifteen different sports had at least one injury at the end of the sports season [18]. The accumulation of MSK-I makes athletes less tolerant of hard training and therefore less likely to achieve higher goals, in addition to the serious problems they present for sports medical teams [19].…”

Healthy Practice of Female Soccer and Futsal: Identifying Sources of Stress, Anxiety and Depression

“…In professional or elite football, for example, each player suffers a mean of two sports injuries during a single competitive season [3,4], which causes a significant impact to the club. In this sense, the loss by injury for a month of a titular player costs his/her club approximately 500,000 euros [5].…”