Analysis of circumstances leading to injuries in elite football players

Aiello, Francesco

doi:10.17869/enu.2023.3165587

Analysis of circumstances leading to injuries in elite football players

Aiello, Francesco

Authors

Dr. Francesco Aiello F.Aiello@napier.ac.uk
Associate

Abstract

Understanding injury mechanisms is key to developing prevention strategies. Information concerning injury mechanisms can be obtained by analysing the sportspecific activities during which injuries occur (i.e., inciting circumstances). Despite the recognition that inciting circumstances are crucial for the understanding of mechanisms of injuries and for the development of injury prevention strategies, there are no summaries of evidence currently available, therefore a systematic review was performed to analyse and summarise the available literature on inciting circumstances in football. From the systematic review it emerged that the studies currently available in the literature used different systems and terminology to report the inciting circumstances, which made summarising the literature and providing information for the development of prevention strategies difficult. Therefore, it seemed essential to develop a standardised classification system to analyse and report inciting circumstances in football which could be used both in research and in professional settings. Ten practitioners and researchers with experience of working in elite football and of conducting research on injury were involved in a modified Nominal Group Technique and such a classification system was developed. Subsequently, the system was utilised to analyse inciting circumstances leading to injury in elite football. A retrospective observational study was conducted to analyse data previously collected by one elite European football club. Inciting circumstances were analysed using videoanalysis and GPS and reported using the classification system previously developed.