Recovery During a Congested Schedule and Injury in Professional Football

Delaval, Benoit; Abaïdia, Abd-Elbasset; Delecroix, Barthélémy; Le Gall, Franck; McCall, Alan; Ahmaidi, Said; Dupont, Gregory

Abstract

Purpose: To analyze the relationships between the recovery kinetics experienced by professional football players and noncontact injury. Methods: A cohort of 46 professional football players (age 24.2 [4.7] y) from the same team (French Ligue 1) was monitored each day between matches when the team played twice a week. The recovery monitoring procedure was implemented after 38 matches and included some questionnaires: duration of sleep, Hooper scale (quality of sleep, level of stress, fatigue, and muscle soreness), perceived recovery status scale, creatine kinase concentrations, a countermovement jump, and an isometric force test. Noncontact injuries were collected during these periods. Results: Noncontact injuries were associated with perceived fatigue and muscle soreness 2 days (relative risk [RR] = 1.89 and 1.48, respectively) and 3 days following the matches (RR = 2.08 and 2.08, respectively). An increase of sleep quantity during the 2 nights following a match was significantly associated with a lower RR (RR = 0.65), as well as a lower decrement score on the isometric force test on each of the 3 days after the matches (RR = 0.97, RR = 0.99, and RR = 0.97, respectively). No other association was reported for the variables sleep quality, stress, perceived recovery, creatine kinase concentrations, countermovement jump, and noncontact injuries. Conclusion: During a congested schedule, implementing a recovery monitoring protocol including questionnaires about fatigue, muscle soreness, quantity of sleep, and a physical test of isometric force could help practitioners prevent injuries.

Citation

Delaval, B., Abaïdia, A., Delecroix, B., Le Gall, F., McCall, A., Ahmaidi, S., & Dupont, G. (2022). Recovery During a Congested Schedule and Injury in Professional Football. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 17(9), 1399-1406. https://doi.org/10.1123/ijspp.2021-0504

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Apr 28, 2022
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2022
• Deposit Date: Oct 13, 2022
• Journal: International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance
• Print ISSN: 1555-0265
• Electronic ISSN: 1555-0273
• Publisher: Human Kinetics
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 17
• Issue: 9
• Pages: 1399-1406
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1123/ijspp.2021-0504
• Keywords: soccer; team sport; risk factor; injury prevention; monitoring
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2932726