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, p
Conclusions
The training and match injury incidences were stable over seven seasons. The risk of injury increased with time in each half of matches.